FAIRLEA- Well, that was not how it was supposed to be.
The top seed in Class AAA Region 3, Section 2, the Greenbrier East Spartans, suffered a season ending 11-6 loss in the sectional tournament to the Woodrow Wilson Flying Eagles on Thursday evening, May 9 at Spartan Yards.
Beckley scored seven combined runs in the fifth and sixth innings that erased a 2-run Spartan lead and broke the game wide open to which East had no answer.
The game was wild from the get-go as well.
East took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first and did so in a rather strange way. Peyton DeHaven got hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Zion Detko followed with a base hit. Ashton Cochran then got hit by a pitch and if that was not enough, Gavin Bennett got plunked as well and DeHaven scored for the early Spartan lead.
Then, the Eagles offense came to life.
East pitcher Eli Green got a quick first out in the top of the second frame. But a walk to Parker Williams and a single from Luke Barnes put two on base for the Eagles. An RBI groundout by Maddex Sims tied the game at 1-all, an RBI base hit by Ty Evans made it 2-1, and two batters later, Gage Price ripped a 2-run single as the Eagles led 4-1 at that point.
East got two runners on in the bottom half which Detko knocked in on a hit to right field to cut the deficit to 4-3 and then Detko scored eventually on a Woodrow error to knot the score at 4-all.
The Spartans then took a 6-4 lead in the fourth inning and seemed to take all the momentum in the ballpark and put it in their dugout on the first base line.
However, “big MO” didn’t stick around long on the Spartan side.
Woodrow answered with three runs in the top half of the fifth frame on RBI singles by Williams and Sims (2-runs) and the Eagles jumped back ahead 7-6.
The game got out of hand for the home team in the sixth inning. With Beckley leading 8-6, and the outcome still very much unknown, East went to freshman pitcher Nelson Lynch to relieve Rylee Wilson who hit three batters in the inning. Beckley took advantage of the situation when Williams laced a 3-run double to the left field fence that gave the Eagles their 11-6 lead.
Trying to fight back with their rally caps on, the Spartans got two runners on in the final frame, but three consecutive outs ended the contest as East had to watch the Eagles celebrate on their own field.
Detko finished his junior season on a high note by going 3-4 with two runs and two RBIs. Bennett’s final game as a Spartan saw him go 1-3 with two batted in. DeHaven scored two runs and fellow senior Gabe Patton had one hit and scored a run as well.
The Spartan pitching seemed to just wear down as this one went on. Green lasted 4.2 innings, allowed nine hits, and seven runs. He did have seven strikeouts. Wilson got through 0.1 innings, allowed one hit and four runs, and hit three batters. Lynch got two innings of work with no earned runs allowed.
Williams was 2-4 with a run and three RBIs for Beckley.
East finishes their season with a final record of 10-20. Look for a complete, full season recap next week.
