The Strafford Indians were able to get a win on their senior night against the Fair Grove Eagles. The senior lead Indians won the game by the score of 5 to 1.
Strafford’s leadoff hitter Wyatt Eubanks got on base with a single and was able to move around to score in the first inning, giving the Indians an early lead.
The Eagles tried to answer in the top of the second with three singles. They had runners in scoring position, but were unable to put any runs on the board.
After an error, a walk, and a balk, the Indians found themselves with runners in scoring position in the bottom of the second. Timely hitting coming in the form of a double hit by sophomore pitcher Drew Stoll resulted in two runs, extending the lead to make the score 3 to 0.
Both sides saw a quick third inning as each team went down one, two, three.
Fair Grove had some momentum with the third out in the bottom of the third, when Noah Argenta caught Andrew Woodring stealing with a perfect throw down to second.
They continued this momentum with the leadoff hitter in the top of the fourth, Coby Church, hitting a double. A single by Jordan Chandler gave them runners on first and third with one out, and an opportunity to cut into the lead. The next two batters were struck out by Stoll to eliminate the threatening Eagles.
The swing in momentum in favor of Strafford continued as the Indians were able to tack on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth giving them a 5 to 0 lead.
Fair Grove was able to capitalize on a couple Indian errors in the top of the fifth inning to close the gap by one run. “Defensively we were average,” coach Shane Pierce said, “We had guys in spots that they haven’t played all year.” This information was not offered as an excuse to their imperfect defensive play, but instead the unusual lineup was due to Strafford still tweaking their lineup to find their best defensive set before district play two weeks away.
Neither team scored in the remaining two innings, with Drew Stoll getting the complete game victory. He also struck out seven batters during the contest. Fair Grove senior Ty Lumley struck out nine batters in the loss, but only two of the five runs were earned runs.
In regards to his pitchers performance, coach Pierce of Strafford stated, “Drew did a good job tonight… He’s going to keep getting better, he’s young, he’s just a sophomore.”
Strafford’s next opponent is Hollister on 4/29, and Fair Grove looks to bounce back against Clever on 5/2.
|
Inning
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
|
Fair Grove
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
|
Strafford
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
