Gallery by Tina Laney
After graduating an extremely talented senior class last year, Independence head baseball coach Scott Cuthbert knew his team would go through some growing pains this year.
While that scenario has played out in the early going, Tuesday night the Patriots proved that you might not want to sleep on the young men from Coal City.
Rallying for two runs in the home half of the seventh to send the game to extra innings, Independence scored twice more in the eighth for a wild 10-9 win over Greenbrier East.
“Overall we have played pretty good the whole first week of the season. We would just have one or two bad innings and get down,” Cuthbert said. “Tonight, even if we had a bad half inning or so, we kept battling. We also put the ball in play better tonight. It’s early, but that is the best we have put the ball in play this year.”
Henry Goodwin’s fly ball to left in the the top of the eighth inning gave the Spartans a 9-8 lead. However, as had been the case all night, maintaining the lead was problematic for the visitors.
A lead off single by Zach Smith gave the Patriots a much needed base-runner to open the eighth, but he was cut down stealing by a perfect throw from East catcher Clayton Morgan.
Indy would not say die.
A walk and a hit batter brought Clay Basham to the dish and the senior all-stater delivered a solid single to tie the game.
“They battled back and they were resilient. Every time we went ahead they answered back,” Greenbrier East head coach Cory Mann said. “When you do that and can’t find a way to put an end to them, and they are at home, it is tough.”
A walk to J.D. Monroe loaded the bases and brought sophomore slugger Cole Cunningham to the batter’s box who admitted he was fighting some nerves in the pressure packed situation.
“I wanted to get the ball on the ground and hopefully my teammates could beat it out. It was a stressful situation with a lot going through my head,” Cunningham said. “This was a very good game for the whole team. We had our ups and downs, but I feel like we played really good there at the end.”
Cunningham delivered a sharp ground ball that was just out of the reach of the third baseman for the dramatic walk-off win.
It was not the first time that Cunningham came up big for the Patriots Tuesday night.
With his team trailing 6-4, the big left-hander delivered a bomb over the right field fence to open the bottom of the sixth inning.
“I was looking for a fastball inside-ish to maybe hit it down the line for a double. I ended up getting a good piece out of it and elevated it pretty good,” Cunningham said. “I was pretty surprised really, but it was probably the best ball I have hit all year.”
The blast proved to be a big momentum boost for Independence according to Cuthbert.
“I think we were down a little right there and he comes in with the big hit to get some excitement back, especially on a cold night,” Cuthbert said.
Cunningham also came on to pitch the eight inning for the Patriots. After Goodwin’s fly ball gave East the lead, the Spartans still had a runner at second base with just one out.
A weak fly ball to first base and a crucial strikeout kept the deficit at one run, setting up the walk-off heroics.
“It’s high school baseball. We didn’t play our greatest game and (Independence) hit the baseball and got the timely hits,” Mann said.
Cunningham had four hits and three RBI on the night, while Basham, Smith and Monroe all had three hits apiece. Smith and James Williams each had two RBI.
Williams’ two RBI tied the game in the bottom of the seventh.
Gavin Bennett had three hits to lead the Spartans. Peyton DeHaven, Darris Boswell, Gabe Patton and Zion Detko all had two hits in the contest.
Both teams are back in action Wednesday night when Independence visits Beckley and Greenbrier East travels to Shady Spring.
