Photos by Tina Laney
Typically at the start of the high school baseball season, pitching is a notch ahead of the hitting.
That wasn’t the case Tuesday night at Joseph H. Goddard Field in Coal City.
Pounding out 13 hits, including the decisive two-run home run from Atticus Goodson, Independence out-slugged Class AAA George Washington 12-10 to win its season opener.
“That was a wild one,” Independence head coach Scott Cuthbert said. “I thought we had some good approaches at the plate tonight. We really concentrated on trying to put the ball in play. It’s tough right off the bat because those were some pretty good arms we had to face. Hopefully we can continue to work and get better.”
The visitors got off to a good start by scoring two runs in their opening at bat, but Independence made sure the positive vibes faded quickly.
A double from Elijah Farrington scored Goodson who was hit by a pitch to open things for Indy. Back-to-back fielders choice ground balls pushed two more across after a walk to Michael McKinney.
The problem for GW was the Patriots recorded just one out on those fielders choice plays after Farrington beat the throw home on the first ground ball.
A single from Andy Lester made it a 4-2 Indy lead before Tanner Sipes followed with a single.
GW looked like it might escape further damage, but a fly ball in the breezy night air gave Indy life and the Patriots made the visitors pay.
With two outs in the inning, Dillon Darnell lifted a fly ball behind second base which could not be handled, driving in both Lester and Sipes for a 6-2 lead.
Two batters later, after Goodson reached on a walk, Farrington cleared the bases with a triple, giving him three RBI in the inning.
“We run a guy out there in the first inning and we are trying to find production out of him,” George Washington heads coach Mike Davis said. “To some point you could say we may have left him in too long, but we wanted him to battle. We wanted to see what we could get out of him.”
Indy could not stand prosperity, however.
Early-season pitching woes gave George Washington bases runners and the visiting Patriots came storming back. Over the next two innings, GW scored eight runs, including six in the third, to retake the lead at 10-8.
Independence added a run in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly from Clay Basham, but missed a golden opportunity after loading the bases with no outs.
The home team made up for it in the fourth.
Tanner Sipes led off with a solid double in the left-center gap and scored on a single from Darnell to tie the game, setting the stage for Goodson.
“He had been throwing outside to the three batters before me. So, I was expecting an outside pitch,” Goodson said. “His ball was breaking a lot and I just sat back and drove the ball to right field. That is what coach teaches us. I was able to put the bat on it and got what I wanted.”
Goodson then launched a bomb over the fence in right-center to put Indy back in front 12-10 after four innings.
“If you had asked after our scrimmages if we were going to come out and score 12 runs, I don’t know if we could have,” Cuthbert said. We didn’t have great scrimmages offensively, but I hope they will take this same approach night in and night out.”
Basham held GW off the scoreboard in the fourth inning, thanks in large part to a great play at first base by Lester that led to a double play, before Goodson came on to pitch the last three frames.
“I don’t think Tanner or Clay had their best stuff, but they battled. I thought Atticus pitched really well after catching four innings. We needed to see that,” Cuthbert said.
Doing the catching for the first time in high school, Goodson liked the dynamic of catching before he went in to pitch.
“I kind of liked doing that more. I have already warmed up my whole body,” Goodson said. “My legs are warm and my arm is warm from throw downs. Coming in to pitch with my body feeling good was a really big plus.”
Although Goodson recorded three scoreless innings for the save, he got some help from his teammates behind him.
A nice snag by Basham at second base saved two runs on a liner that appeared it might drop over his head.
“Clay made a really good play there and we made a couple of good throws behind Atticus tonight,” Cuthbert said.
The loss dropped GW to 0-3, with all three setbacks coming in tough fashion like Tuesday night.
“It is tough to battle back from an eight-run inning. They are a good ball club and you can’t give them eight runs in an inning and expect to beat them,” Davis said. “I am proud of the way we battled. The scoreboard didn’t reflect the way we battled the rest of the game. (Independence is) an extremely good baseball team and they made us work all night.”
