FAIRLEA, WV- The Greenbrier East Spartans, including pitcher Gabe Patton, had a weekend to forget a couple days ago. The Spartans went to Morgantown and got beat twice by Musselman, but the opportunity to start from scratch and get back on the winning track began on Monday night, April 3 against the Princeton Tigers.
The Spartans put a check mark beside opportunity no. 1 and Patton said no-no on another loss.
Patton tossed a no-hitter and the Spartans got just enough offense en route to a 4-0 victory over the Tigers.
East started the scoring in the bottom of the first. Ashton Cochran got it started with a one-out single and two batters later, with two outs, Darris Boswell ripped a double to left field that scored Cochran and the Spartans led 1-0.
The score stayed the same until the fourth when East was back at it again. Boswell and Clayton Morgan walked as the Spartans had runners on first and second base. Both those runners would score on a wild pitch and an error, respectively, later in the frame as East jumped ahead 3-0.
Cochran’s RBI groundout that scored Peyton DeHaven in the fifth inning finished the scoring.
The Tigers had no chance against Patton who was dialed in. Other than walking five batters, Patton hit his spots and changed speeds well all night. He kept the Tigers hitters off balance as they could not muster good contact to ever threaten.
Patton went the distance and struck out nine.
Cochran, Zion Detko, Boswell and Goodwin all had hits for the Spartans.
Lucas Monaghan took the loss on the mound for Princeton.
East will host undefeated Alleghany (VA) on Tuesday, April 4. The Mountaineers defeated East 14-8 in Alleghany a few weeks ago.
