Gallery by Greg Barnett
Princeton – Beckley and Princeton spent most of Wednesday evening combing to strand 18 runners on base.
Beckley eventually figured out a way to solve that problem while Princeton struggled to muster that game-changing hit.
The Flying Eagles erupted for five runs in the sixth inning, claiming a 5-0 win over the Tigers at Hunnicutt Field.
With a pair of runners on and in scoring position with one out, Princeton pitcher Brody Combs hoped to emerge unscathed against the bottom of a Beckley order that saw its No. 6 through 9 hitters go 1 for 6 at the plate across the first five innings.
Back in after he was pinch-hit for, No. 9 hitter Isaiah Lewis laid a bunt that rolled slowly up the first base line, threatening to go foul before the muddy infield provided just enough resistance to keep it fair. The bunt scored Blake Nixon and kicked off what became the defining inning of the game.
“We had to go play a little bit of small ball,” Beckley head coach Mike McKinney said. “We had to get some guys moved over and into scoring position and then get some timely hitting. We played Monday. All of spring break we only got to play two games last week. So we’re just trying to get the feel back and playing was big for us.”
Hitting itself wasn’t a problem for the Flying Eagles – stranding runners in scoring position was. They left the bases loaded in the first and fourth innings and appeared well on their way to doing so again prior to Lewis’ bunt.
Princeton fared little better, producing a base runner in all but one inning and advancing a runner into scoring position in five of the seven frames. But on a night where the Tigers applied pressure, only striking out six times, Beckley’s defense committed only one error and it came in a low-leverage moment.
“(Combs) was in a very tough spot,” Princeton head coach Brandon Dunford said. “You know, that’s a sophomore on the mound (Combs) and that was the best performance he’s given us all year. He pitched deep in the game and he got out of some jams and the biggest thing that was the difference in today’s game, was we couldn’t capitalize with runners in scoring position. We had guys at second and third, bases loaded, a runner on third with one out and that’s the biggest difference in the game. We couldn’t capitalize with runners in scoring position.”
Combs repeatedly worked through jams, giving the Tigers 5.1 innings on the bump. The sixth-inning ambush eventually chased him with Ty Evans and Maddox Sims adding RBIs in the decisive frame. The other two runs came on an error after Sims’ hit that allowed Evans and Chaser Tolliver to scored and a wild pitch that plated Gage Price.
Princeton managed a trio of base runners in the final two innings but none advanced past second base as Beckley’s young trio of Sims, Andrew Gallaher and Brady Williams kept the Tigers off balance.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize how young we are,” McKinney said. “We had four freshmen in the lineup. They’re hitting at the bottom of the lineup, but they’re some of our best athletes and the more they do and see things, the better they’ll get.
“Pitching, we concentrated all offseason on hitting our spots and command. That first kid, Drew (Gallaher), he’s a freshman. Brady Williams, he’s another freshman. So I mean, I’m real proud of them. They hit their spots well and worked out of some jams.”
Princeton’s lineup didn’t feature a batter that struck out more than once but the approach at the plate left much to be desired for Dunford’s young group.
“What I saw offensively is we’re a very aggressive team at the plate, which is a good thing but also a bad thing,” Dunford said. “And we were swinging at a lot of balls. A lot of trying to pull an outside pitch and making a weak ground ball to the left side of the field, swinging at balls in the dirt, which was making another weak ground ball. The biggest thing at the plate was although we’re a very aggressive team, we still have to have better pitch selection on what we’re going to actually swing at.”
Sims picked up the win in the circle for Beckley with one hit allowed in three innings of work. Combs was tagged with loss, credited with four earned runs.
