Antonius Sims had one chance, and boy did he deliver.

The junior was called off the bench in the bottom of the sixth inning with the bases loaded and his team, Eastside, trailing 4-3.

On the second offering from Sandy Creek's pitcher Sims sent the ball 400 feet and over the outfield wall.
That was the spark Eastside needed in its 11-6 victory on Tuesday.

The Eagles (14-4, 8-2) traveled to Tyrone, Ga. on Tuesday to face Region 4-AAA foe Sandy and it was a close one throughout the first 5 ½ innings.

With sophomore Drew Buckhault on the hill for Eastside, the Sandy Creek Patriots (8-11, 6-6) were held scoreless through two innings of three-up-and-three-down baseball. The Eagles were also held scoreless through the first two innings.

Things started to heat up in the third as the Eagles leadoff batter Cody Walker made his way on base with a double. Walker was driven in by Joey Mitchell's single to left which was followed by a Keith Buckhault home run.

Jake Wright doubled but was then thrown out trying to steal third and the Eastside half of the inning ended with the score 3-0 in favor of the Eagles.

The Patriots answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the third.

Sandy Creek's starting pitcher was effective in keeping the Eagles off the scoreboard for both the fourth and fifth innings.

With Drew Buckhault still pitching for the Eagles in the bottom of the fifth, things got a little dicey when he struck out the first batter but then walked the next two batters.

Before the inning ended, the fifth man up for the Patriots hit a double off the fence bringing in two runs and giving the 4-3 lead to Sandy Creek heading into the top of the sixth.

With the Patriot fans re-energized and getting loud, the Eagles went about their business with Musashi Briem reaching on a single followed by a pair of walks to Daniel Garrett and Matt Hitchcock to load the bases.

Coach Brad Weir then summoned Sims to pinch hit.

Following Sims' slam the Eagles continued to stretch their lead with a single by Walker, a walk to Joey Mitchell and singles by Keith Buckhault, Briem and Garrett. Eastside put a total of eight runs on the board and assumed a commanding 11-4 lead. Tyler Bailey assumed the pitching duties in the sixth and seventh innings and would allow two additional runs to be scored by Sandy Creek, but the Eagles would leave with the 11-6 victory.

Eastside hosted Eagles landing after press time Thursday night.