The Eastside baseball team continued its winning ways, defeating Region 4-AAA foe Jackson 6-4 on Monday for its fifth win in a row.
The Eagles (13-3, 7-1) jumped to an early lead, 2-0, in the top of the first after leadoff hitter Cody Walker drew a walk and was driven in two batters later on a home run by Keith Buckhault.
Daniel Garrett pitched for Eastside, allowing just one base runner through the first couple of innings.
In the top of the third Buckhault connected with a solo home run to make the score 3-0.
Garrett was again solid from the mound in the bottom half of the third. The Eastside half of the fourth inning saw Matt Hitchcock draw a leadoff walk, Walker reach on a single and Joey Mitchell reach on error to load the bases for Buckhault. The Red Devil pitcher would be very careful with Buckhault and was content to walk in a run rather than give Buckhault a chance to do any more damage.
The Red Devils bats came alive in the fourth as Garrett yielded three hits and another batter reached on error. Jackson would draw close by scoring three runs to make the score 4-3.
Both teams were unable to score in the fifth and senior Tyler Bailey came into the game to relieve Garrett on the mound.
The Eagles would put a couple of insurance runs on the board in the sixth when Bailey drew a leadoff walk and David VanLeuven singled. Both the pitcher and catcher were replaced on the base paths by pinch runners Drew Buckhault and T. Sims and after an errant throw on a pick-off attempt at first by the catcher, chaos ensued and both Eagles scored as the Red Devils threw the ball around the field.
Jackson added a single run in the sixth courtesy of a walk, a hit and an Eastside error, but that would be the extent of the scoring as the Eagles came away with the 6-4 victory.
The Eagles will face Stockbridge today.
Eastside curently sits in second place in Region 4-AAA with a 7-1 record. The Eagles are one game behind Spalding, which sits atop the region with an 8-0 record.
The two teams met earlier in the season at Eastside.
It was the Eagles only region loss of the year, 13-10 on March 14. It was also Eastside's only loss since Feb. 25, amassing a 11-1 record since then.
