BECKLEY- There’s nothing like a baseball season opener. There’s also nothing like playing your biggest rival in a baseball season opener.
But beating your biggest rivals in a baseball season opener?
Well, that actually takes the cake.
The Greenbrier East Spartans traveled to Beckley on Wednesday, March 19 and got their 2025 season started with a bang and beat the Woodrow Wilson Flying Eagles 13-7 in a highly entertaining game from start to finish.
The Spartans (1-0) committed just one error on the evening and pounded out 18 hits while limiting Woodrow Wilson to just four.
Things started quickly for Greenbrier East.
Zion Detko led off the game with a single to right then Graham Brewster walked. The next hitter, Nelson Lynch, laced an RBI double that brought Detko across the plate. Two batters later, Brewster scored on a wild pitch. Josiah Spencer capped the frame with a sac fly and after the top of the first inning, the Spartans led 3-0.
But Beckley answered right back with three runs of their own in the bottom half. Maddex Sims tripled and later scored on a balk, and they would add two more runs on a crazy defensive sequence from the Spartans and after one inning, the score was knotted at 3-all.
East got going again in the third.
Layne Lambert doubled and then eventually scored on a Beckley (1-1) fielding error. Clay Patton followed and got hit with a pitch and Joe Baker doubled to center field. Brayden Baskcombe then hit a 2-run triple that put the Spartans up 6-3, still with just one out. Detko followed that hit with a run scoring single to finish off the scoring and the Spartans had extended their lead to 7-3.
With Greenbrier East leading 8-7 in the top of the sixth, the bats woke up one final time for some finishing touches on the Eagles night.
Lambert got an RBI single that scored Brewster and Eli Green got home on a wild pitch a couple batters later. That made the score 10-7 after six. The Spartans added three more insurance runs in the seventh which was more than enough for Green to close Beckley out in the final frame.
Lambert got the start on the mound for East and Sonny Herbert relieved him in the third. Both pitchers pitched pretty well, but had some typical early season control issues which will get better as the season moves forward. The two combined for four strikeouts and eight walks.
On the other hand, Braden Teaney and Green went 3.1 innings, allowed just three hits and struck out five in relief outings.
At the plate, the Spartans had Detko, Lambert, and Baskcombe all go 4-4 in the game. Detko also scored a run and drove in two more, Lambert scored one and knocked in three, and Baskcombe had a triple, two runs scored and three RBIs. Brewster and Lynch (two doubles) each had two hits apiece.
Sophomore Gage Price went 1-1 with three RBIs for Woodrow.
East has their home opener today, Thursday, March 20 against Princeton.
