Gallery by Heather Belcher
Although the high school baseball season is still in its infancy, Greenbrier East has battled a power outage of sorts at the plate.
Wednesday night at Joseph H. Goddard Field in Cola City, the bats for the Spartans were electric.
Pounding out 10 hits and capitalizing on a couple of key errors by Independence, Greenbrier East hammered the Patriots 11-2.
“We swung it a lot better tonight and I was happy to see it. We just have to continue doing it,” Greenbrier East head coach Cory Mann said. “As far as a complete game on all sides, I thought we did a good of being able to execute everything. We laid down some bunts, took some bags and we executed on the mound.”
Early on it appeared to be the same tough story for the visitors when Nelson Lynch failed to score after a lead-off double.
Cole Cunningham’s sacrifice fly in the bottom the inning gave the Patriots a 1-0 lead, but East did not miss many opportunities the rest of the way.
Gavin Bennett doubled to open the second inning and later scored on a ground ball from Layne Lambert to tie the game, 1-1.
An RBI-single from Blake Stratton gave Indy its last lead of the night in the home half of the third before the Spartans flexed their muscle the rest of the way.
The trouble for Indy started when Ashton Cochran walked to start the fourth inning and appeared to be picked off at first base.
In the ensuing rundown, Cochran collided with an Independence infielder and was awarded second base due to interference.
The out would prove costly for the Patriots.
Cochran then moved to third base on a sac bunt from Brandon Upton and scored on Bennett’s fly ball.
Back-to-back singles from Lambert and Zion Detko preceded three free passes from the Patriot pitchers giving East a 4-2 lead.
Independence had its chance to respond when it received two walks in the bottom of the inning. The opportunity went by the boards when a pick-off at first and a double play kept the Patriots from mounting any type of rally.
“We made some mental mistakes in the one inning and then we got behind,” Independence head coach Scott Cuthbert said. “We are going to make young mistakes though. Out of 14 kids, we have five kids that have actually played here. We have a couple of older ones, but they haven’t played the way we think.”
A double from W. Va. Wesleyan signee Gabe Patton to start the fifth inning produced a run when Cochran ripped a single to center-field.
Cochran scored via a ground ball out after reaching third base on an Indy error that kept the inning alive.
“We saw a few good things, but Greenbrier East is a tough team to play. They will bunt and do some different things,” Cuthbert said. “Early we were a pitch or two from getting out of the inning tied. So, that could have been a little different. They hit the ball when they needed to and after the third inning we never really threatened.”
The Spartans put the game away in the sixth inning by putting five more runs on the board. East tallied three hits in the inning, including a double from Lynch, but was also aided by two additional Independence errors.
While the production at the plate was big for East, the pitching held up its end of the bargain as well.
Lambert, just a freshman, and sophomore Elijah Green combined to allow two hits and two earned runs. The only blemish for the two youngsters was eight walks in the contest.
“We try to pitch ahead in count which obviously gives us an advantage,” Mann said. “We did that decent tonight. I would like to see us get ahead a little more.”
Following a 1-3 start, Mann was happy to see his team establish what he hopes to be some positive momentum. Wednesday kicked off a stretch of seven games in six days for East which includes games with sectional rivals Oak Hill (Thursday) and Beckley (Monday).
“We were supposed to play two on Saturday, rain got us. We were supposed to play last night and rain got us,” Mann said. “It was good to get a little reset there and hopefully get our focus right and executing going forward.”
Independence is back home Thursday against Nicholas County. The Grizzlies are off to a 4-1 start and are thought by many to be the team to beat in the sectional battle this year.
“We have been pointing to that game to see where we are at. I know they are really solid. I am just curious to see where we are with our guys and see how it goes,” Cuthbert said. “It is still so early in the season and things can change. Last year, the first game we had four different starters than we did when we played them in sectionals. We will see what happens.”
