The Eastside Eagles evened their record at 3-3 Wednesday night after hosting the Morgan County Bulldogs (5-3) in a 16-0 run-rule affair.
The game started off well enough for the Bulldogs, as their leadoff man hit a single to left field. But the base runner was gunned down by freshman leftfielder Austin Kerbow as he tried to stretch it into a double.
Pitching for the Eagles was another freshman, Josh Sims, who then got out of the inning with a groundout and a strikeout.
The top of the lineup for the Eagles’ offense was unable to generate any offense in the bottom of the first inning, and the game remained scoreless.
Eastside shut down Morgan County in the top of the second inning with three quick outs.
Then, the floodgates opened for the Eagles’ hitters, with consecutive singles from Nick Womack, Hank Steele, Peyton Pallay and Chase Raines. The Bulldogs got a couple of outs as the lineup rolled over, but the Eagles were not finished hitting. Austin Holloway joined the offensive fray with another single, followed by a Womack base-clearing double to make the score 7-0.
Not to be outdone, Steele reached on another single, his second of the inning, as did Pallay and Raines, and Eastside closed the inning with a 10-0 lead.
Sims again took the mound for Eastside as Morgan County tried to work its way back into the game with a pair of base runners courtesy of an error and a walk. But, any attempt at a comeback was squelched as the heart of the Bulldogs’ lineup was retired in order.
Sims finished the night with a pair of strikeouts, a pair of walks and one hit batsman while only giving up one hit over three innings of work.
The Eagles went to work in the bottom of the third with a leadoff single from Kerbow followed by a pair of walks to load the bases again for Womack. Womack collected his fifth RBI of the night after hitting a solid single to the gap.
Steele continued to swing a hot bat with another single, going 3-for-3 on the night with a pair of RBIs.
A pair of errors from the shortstop position allowed Steele and Raines to score, making the final tally 16-0 as the mercy rule was iininvoked.
“We had good production from the bottom of our lineup tonight,” Eastside coach Jon Ayres said. “Anytime you put up 12 hits in a ball game the results are going to be positive, and I liked what I saw tonight”.
Saturday is “Teacher Appreciation Day” at Eagle Field and all of the players are inviting their favorite teachers to the ballpark as Eastside returns to action with a double-header against Jackson County.
