The Versailles Republican Sports

May 20, 2010

Milan Indians find gratifying reason
to beat their drums on Warpath Drive

Gary Franklin, Sports Writer

Though hit and miss rain has denied many scheduled games being played on both the girls' softball and boys' baseball fields of late, the visiting Jac-Cen-Del Eagle varsity baseball team saw their lead in the ORVC race dwindle after competing to the bottom of the eighth inning against the hosting Milan Indians on Friday evening, May 14.
Pitchers on the mound for the two teams competion pitted JCD Eagle senior Dalton Garnett against Milan Indian senior Derek Walker.
Indian hurler Walker and his defensive co-hearts limited the Eagles to just three batters before coming to the plate for their first inning opportunity to score. However, lead off batter for the Eagles Derek Lunsford reached after being hit by a pitch and accounted for the third out of the at bat as he attempted to steal home on a fly to second base found him gunned down at the plate.
The Eagles would not relent to the Indian atempt, however Indian Walker nailed a stand up double before the tribe was retired with four batters entering the batters box.
The Eagles second inning at bat found senior Trent Tucker drawing a walk, later followed by a single off the bat of Dalton Garnett, before the team was retired without a score on the scoreboard.
The tribe however gained a one run lead in their at bat with a single off the bat of senior Grayson Miller after one out, followed by a double by Cody Strunk for the RBI.
In the Eagle at bat during the third inning, senior Zach Kappes reached on an errror, but was left on base as they were retired.
In the bottom of the third, the Indians lead off batter Stites was hit by a Garnett pitch, sending him to first, but following his advance to second, the tribe was again retired.
The Eagles struck for paydirt, knotting the game at one after two outs as senior Daniel Harlemert scored off his walk, followed by a Garnett RBI single, senior Brandon Wilhoit's drawing the second walk in the inning, followed by a hard hit Brock Shadday line drive, that was handled by the Indian third baseman to end the Eagle threat of taking the lead.
Indian Strunk reached base with a single following two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, where he was left as the third out followed off the at bat of Zeth O'Neal.
Indian Walker and the tribe shot the Eagles down one, two, three in the top of the fifth before sending eight batters to the batters box in their at bat in the bottom of the inning, scoring four runs for a five to one lead.
Indian Cory Strunk went down to the strike out to open their at bat. Stites drew a walk, followed by a double by senior Nick Lohrum, leaving runners at second and third, one out. With a decision made to pitch to Walker as senior Zach Elza followed him in the lineup, Walker's swing resulted in a three run home run over the right-center field fence.
Elza continued with a double before the Eagles managed to get a second out. Senior Miller delivered an RBI single to put them up four at five to one before Cody Strunk went down via the K.
Unwilling to cry uncle, the Eagles met in front of their dugout and collectively met the challenge as they took their at bat in the tiop of the sixth.
Trevor Arnett opened the Eagle sixth inning with a solid single, Tucker singled as did Harlemert, leading to a double by Garnett. Senior Brandon Wilhoit's groundout allowed another Eagle run to cross the plate. A single by Shadday led to a walk to Lunsford a pair of fielder choice strokes by senior Zach Kappes and Shane Adams with inning leadoff batter Arnett ending the illusive inning with a K, the game tied at five.
Walker was taken off the mound after 5 1/3 innings with senior Zach Elza called to compete in relief where he pitched 2 2/3 innings.
JCD held firm in the bottom of the sixth, retiring the tribe one, two, three.
Elza's work in the top of the seventh allowed two Eagles to reach base, with neither able to cross the plate before being retired.
Eagle Garnett, and the defensive alignment behind him, again retired the tribe one two three.
Game tied after seven complete innings 5-5
Eagle Brock Shadday led off in the top of the eighth, flying out to left field on a hard hit ball. Lunsford grounded out to second for out number two. Kappes was hit by the pitch delivery of Elza, putting a potential winning run on the basepath, but a Adams' fly out to center field ended the Eagle extended inning threat.
The Indians, however, had found new hope and driven determination to take advantage of the opportunity afforded them.
Alex Layden led off the inning with a single and teammate Miller followed also laying down a single with both advancing a base as Cody Strunk took his at bat.
Strunk made contact, but a routine check the runner and throw out down to first ended up as a Tucker handling error, allowing the winning run in Layden to cross the plate, ending the game, Milan 7-6 over JCD.
Either way, the game's outcome was going to be a heartbreaker for the loser and quite possibly an ORVC conference championship determiner.
Only time will find the true affect of the outcome holds for the teams.
Milan vs JCD
Raider Batting
Bret Stites -
2AB, HBP & a Walk
Nick Lohrum -
4AB, K, double & a Run
Derek Walker -
4AB, double, Home Run, K & 3 RBI's
Zach Elza -
4AB, Run & a double
Alex Layden -
3AB, a Run, Sgl & HBP
Grayson Miller -
4AB, Run, with 3 Singles
Zach Lewis -
0AB
Cody Strunk -
4AB, Sgl, Double & a K
Zeth O'Neal -
3AB
Zach Turner -
0AB
Cory Strunk -
3 AB with 3 K's
Indian Pitching
Senior Indian Derek Walker pitched 5 2/3 innings with senior teammate Zach Elza coming on in relief for 2 2/3 innings in the Indian 6-5 eight inning win.
Eagle Batting
Derek Lunsford -
3AB, Walk, HBP, SB & a PO
Zach Kappes -
3AB, RBI, Walk, Sac with 4 PO's
Shane Adams -
5AB, K & 3 PO's
Trevor Arnett -
4AB, Run, Sgl, & a K
Trent Tucker -
3AB, Run, Walk, Sgl & 4 PO's
Daniel Harlemert -
3AB, 2 Runs, 2 Sgl's, a K, Walk, 2 SB & a PO
Dalton Garnett -
4AB, 3 Sgls, Double, Run, 3 RBI's and 2 PO's
Ryan Schuler -
0AB
Brandon Wilhoit -
3AB, Walk, RBI & 6 PO's
Brock Shadday -
3AB, Sgl & a Walk
Tyler Kays -
0AB
Eagle Pitching
Eagle Dalton Garnett went full 8 innings, facing 34 Indian batters where he gave up 10 hits resulting in 6 runs, 5 earned, while walking 1 and fanning 6 and gave up a 3 run home run to Indian senior Derek Walker. Charged with a wild pitch and hitting two Indian batters at the plate.