After a split with Hedgesville on Friday (12-2 loss) and Saturday (14-4 win), the Greenbrier East Spartans baseball team hosted the Oak Hill Red Devils on Monday evening, March 27 looking for their second consecutive win.
Having to overcome leaving the bases loaded twice and over 10 men on base in critical situations, East came up big in the clutch and secured an important 4-2 victory in front of a big crowd at Spartan Field.
After the Spartans squandered a couple scoring opportunities in the first and second innings, they finally got on the board in the third. Clayton Morgan hit a single to left field and brought Ashton Cochran home as East cut the deficit to 2-1.
Morgan tripled to lead off the bottom of the fifth with the Spartans still down 2-1, and he scored on pitcher Gabe Patton’s sacrifice fly to help his own cause, and just like that, the game was tied at 2-all after five.
Oak Hill failed to score in the sixth and the Spartans buckled up and took advantage in the bottom half.
Cochran led off the inning with a triple when the ball got past the outstretched arms of Oak Hill center fielder Micah McCarraher, and Cochran sprinted around the bases to end up at third. Two batters later, Gavin Bennett knocked Cochran in on a sac fly for a 3-2 Spartan lead. Morgan scored on an error later in the frame to make it 4-2.
The Red Devils never threatened in the seventh as Patton struck out the last two hitters and the Spartans wrapped up the win.
Patton went all seven innings and allowed just four hits and two unearned runs. He also struck out 10 Red Devils.
Jayden McClain started pitching for Oak Hill. She went 5.2 innings, allowed 11 hits and four runs. He struck out seven and walked three.
Morgan (3-4, 2 runs, RBI), Cochran (2-4, 2 runs) and Zion Detko (2-4) led the Spartan offense.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
OH: 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 4 4
GE: 0 0 1 0 1 2 X 4 11 1
