SHADY SPRING- Greenbrier East traveled to Shady Spring on Tuesday afternoon and battled with the Tigers on the baseball diamond.
For the second game in a row, the Spartans pitched well enough to win but could not get quite enough offense to get them over the proverbial hump in a close, tough 5-4 loss.
East got just three hits, but early on they relied on small ball to get on the scoreboard. They took a quick 1-0 lead in the first after Peyton DeHaven and Ashton Cochran both got hit by pitches and then Gabe Patton laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt. Zion Detko then knocked DeHaven in with an RBI groundout. Shady came to bat in the bottom half and tied the game at 1-all when Aidan Calvert scored on a passed ball at home plate. After one, the score remained the same.
The Tigers went up 4-1 after scoring on a Spartan error in the second frame and by a bases load walk, and a sac fly from Calvert in the third.
Eli Green had an RBI for the Spartans in the top of the fourth to cut the deficit to 4-2 at that point. Detko had his second RBI groundout of the game in the sixth that made it 4-3 as the Spartans were slowly gaining a little momentum.
That continued into the top of the seventh inning when East’s pinch hitter Brandon Upton led off with a double to center field. Gavin Erskine came in to run for him and Erskine was moved to third on a sac bunt from Layne Lambert, and he then scored on Gavin Bennett’s groundout to second. That made the score 4-4 heading into the final at-bat for the Tigers.
Freshman Noah Fox singled to start the inning. He ended up on third base after the next two hitters, and on a 1-1 pitch, Fox stole home on a passed ball and the Tigers clinched the win in walk-off fashion.
Eli Green got the start in the pitcher’s circle for East. He lasted 2.1 innings, allowed two hits and 3 earned runs, and walked 5 and struck out 4. Lambert pitched well in four relief innings. He gave up just two hits and struck out 5 but did walk 4. East walked a total of nine batters on the evening.
Detko’s 2 RBIs led the team. Patton went 2-2 with a run scored.
Sam Barnett pitched a complete game for Shady and allowed 3 earned runs and had 7 strikeouts.
