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PREP BASEBALL: Shivers brothers aid in Eastside's scoring explosion win over Jackson in Norcross
Colby Shivers
Eastside junior Colby Shivers (pictured) along with freshman brother Kyle combined for five of Eastside's 13 hits and accounted for 12 of the Eagles' 13 runs in a win over Jackson in the first round of the Diamond Devil Dust Up in Norcross. -photo by Anthony Banks

NORCROSS, Ga. — The Eastside Eagles baseball team will owe a big debt of gratitude to the Shivers family after Wednesday’s 13-7 win over Jackson in the first game of the Diamond Devil Dust-Up tournament at Norcross High School. 

That’s because brothers Colby and Kyle Shivers were, in some way, responsible for 12 of Class AAAA No. 6 Eastside’s 13 runs. Junior Colby was 2 for 3 at the plate — including a triple — while scoring five runs for the Eagles and freshman brother Kyle hit 3-for-5 and accounted for six RBIs as the Eagles blitzed Jackson with 13 hits. 

"They definitely can swing it," said Eastside coach Brandon Crumbley.

The scoring fireworks didn’t get started until later in the game, but junior shortstop Noah Cook got things going in the first inning as he lined out to score the game’s first run. Kyle Shivers brought his brother Colby across on a sacrifice grounder in the top of the third to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead, and then Sambo Button followed with a line drive double to center that ushered in Cook. 

Jackson would add a run in the bottom of the third frame to make it 3-1, Eastside. Then the Eagles exploded in the fourth for three runs and then tacked on four more in the fifth inning when Cook and Shivers both recording RBIs to make it 10-1 going into the bottom of the fifth. 

The Jaguars began to rally in the bottom half, scoring three to chop the lead to 10-4. Jackson added another trio of runs in the sixth, thanks to a Tyler Williams RBI triple followed by Jayden Wilson’s RBI single. 

Eastside put things out of reach, though, when Kyle Shivers singled on a hard grounder to left, advancing to second on the throw and allowing Colby Shivers to cross home plate again. The score was part of a 3-run top seventh that essentially shut the door on any hopes of a Jackson comeback. 

Four seemed to be the magic number for Eastside’s Parker Daniel who got the win on the bump after allowing four hits on four runs while striking out four in 4 1/3 innings of work. Ethan Booth and Brayden Downs came in from the bullpen to shut things down in the stretch. 

The win is Eastside’s 11th straight, earning the Eagles the right to play either Madison County or Northview at 4 p.m. Thursday. At the time of this report, Madison County was up 10-0 over Northview in the third inning.