Oak Hill – Greenbrier East opened the high school baseball season with a shutout loss to Oak Hill in Fairlea.
Friday night at Jerry Epperly Field, the Spartans returned the favor.
Pounding out 12 hits and riding the strong arm of starting pitcher Jake Roshau, Greenbrier East rolled past the Red Devils 11-0 in six innings.
“We put it together tonight and played great baseball. I am proud of them and that is the team I look to have going forward,” Greenbrier East head coach Cory Mann said.
The season opening loss was on the minds of the visitors, but the focus for Mann was more about the progress his team had made since the early setback.
“We just discussed that we are a better baseball team now than we were at that point,” Mann said. “We wanted to come out and show people the style of baseball that we can play and focus on us.”
The Spartans set the tone for the game in the first inning and frustrated Oak Hill all night.
Darris Boswell was hit to open the contest and moved to second on a wild pitch. Ashton Cochran’s grounder then moved Boswell to third.
The golden opportunity to score appeared as if it might slip away when Oak Hill starter Trent Rider recorded a strikeout for the second out of the inning.
However, Greenbrier East responded with some two-out magic to score three big runs.
“We talk about scoring first and having big innings,” Mann said. “We were able to do both of those things in the first inning and set the pace for the game tonight.”
Chris Heaster singled home Boswell before Gavin Bennett followed with a single and Gabe Patton walked to load the bases.
Roshau then helped his own cause with a single to score two more for the 3-0 lead.
“Our goal as a team is to put the ball in play and I was seeing the ball good tonight. If we keep putting the ball in play, they will fall and we just wanted to run the bases as best as we could,” Roshau said.
Oak Hill’s best chance to get on the board came in the bottom of the first inning when a walk and a hit batsman, along with a double-steal put runners at second and third with just one out.
Roshau recorded a big strikeout for the second out, but walked the next batter to load the bases.
The Red Devils failed to take advantage and the threat ended with a ground ball out.
“It usually takes me a little bit to warm up. I try to get that first inning out in the bullpen, but they really don’t have a bullpen for us to use,” Roshau said. “I kind of had to get that first inning out (on the field). It wasn’t really what I wanted, but I was glad we could pick it up in the second inning.”
The Spartans added another run in the second inning, but when Roshau stepped on the hill again, the senior lefty never gave Oak Hill any life.
“Really you have to give credit to their pitcher. Among all that we did wrong, it was mostly what he did right. He had us off balance and he was working ahead,” Oak Hill head coach Matt Boyd said. “I told our guys that he made us look silly and he really did. Everything that we didn’t do on the mound, he did. He is just a good pitcher.”
Over the final five innings, Roshau allowed just three hits and struckout seven, allowing only two runners to reach second base.
“The fastball was really working tonight and they couldn’t seem to catch up to it. I just kept bringing it and not taking anything off,” Roshau said. “If I took anything off, I kept missing. I kept pounding it in there and hoped my arm kept up.”
Walks, errors and seven base hits by the Spartans amounted to seven runs over the final three innings to put the game on ice.
“I tell our guys all the time if we put the bat on the ball, good things will happen,” Mann said. “Baseball is a hard game and in high school baseball, teams are going to mishandle the ball a little bit. We had some hard hit balls and overall I thought we played a good game.”
While Roshau was in a solid groove after the first inning, the Red Devils never settled in on the mound.
“We are working behind hitters. With good hitters when you work from behind, it gets pretty predictable what you are throwing,” Boyd said. “If they are sitting on fastballs, you see what can happen. We had seven walks and four hit batters. With (Roshau) on the mound, you give yourself no shot.”
Heaster went 4-for-4 on the night with a pair of RBI, while Roshau drove in four and had two hits. Cochran and Bennett each had two RBI for East.
