It is almost spring, and baseball has begun in Fairlea as the Greenbrier East Spartans opened their new season with a scrimmage game on Monday, Mar. 14 on the road.
Jacob Roshau, Gavin Bennett, Jonathan Sauls and Darris Boswell combined on an impressive no hitter in the Spartans season opening 4-0 win over the Princeton Tigers.
Darris Boswell struck out Jonathan Higginbotham to close the game out for East.
The Spartans got things started in the second inning when Henry Goodwin singled on a 1-0 count, scoring Gavin Bennett who had tripled earlier in the inning. That gave the Spartans a 1-0 lead. A couple batters later, Ian Cline laced a 2-run triple that brought Goodwin home along with Clayton Morgan.
Those are some young, fresh names, and head coach Cory Mann says although some struggles may be expected, he is excited what they can bring to the table.
“We graduated eight seniors last year, and five of those guys got opportunities to play baseball at the next level. So, we have a lot of positions with new faces. We are going to have some growing pains, but I am very excited about the team we have,” Mann said.
“We also have some talented youth that are willing to compete their tails off and show everyone the hard work they put in over the off-season in the weight room that has developed them and prepared them for this year. As we continue to develop and grow this program this team will help us take another step in the right direction,” he continued.
Chris Heaster capped the scoring for the Spartans when he doubled to left field and Boswell scored. That made it 4-0 in the top half of the sixth frame.
That was more than enough for the four pitchers.
Boswell struck out the first two hitters in the bottom of the sixth and then got Brandon Clay on a harmless ground out to third. Princeton got a runner on in the seventh after an error, but Boswell struck out two more to end the game and give East a good start to the 2022 season.
Jacob Roshau led things off on the pitcher’s mound for East. The southpaw went two innings, allowing zero runs on zero hits, striking out four and walking one.
Sauls, Ashton Cochran, Cline, Goodwin, Heaster, and Bennett all had hits for East.
“We have some older guys stepping up filling bigger rolls than they had to last year and are doing a great job at executing it,” Mann said.
The Spartans seem poised and ready to open the season this Saturday, Mar. 19 against Oak Hill at home at 10 a.m. They will then play Ripley at 4 p.m.
“I was very encouraged with what I saw in our scrimmage last night, and it is a solid foundation to continue working hard and building. We are striving to continue to develop and build momentum as the year goes on so come post-season play, we are primed and ready to make a deep run,” Mann said.
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