Hurricanes Open Baseball Season, Beat War Eagles & Fall to Panthers
Last Friday, the Hurricanes traveled to Putnam County to take on the War Eagles hoping to avenge last season’s loss, as well as put themselves in the win column and even out their record on the young season.
The Canes started out hot, posting single runs in the first and second, followed by two more in the third to take a 4-0 lead.
In the top of the first, they scored without the benefit of a hit thanks to the base running of Chevy Sands who drew a four pitch walk with one out to reach, promptly stole second base. Two pitches later he was off to the races again, stealing third with still only one out. On the War Eagle attempt to throw him out at third, the throw went wide, allowing Sands to come home with the game’s first run.
In the bottom half of the inning, Putnam loaded the bases thanks to an error, a single, and a walk, but were shut down thanks to three consecutive strikeouts by the right arm of Hunter Hays. In the top of the second, Hays continued the momentum from the mound and laced a line drive double into the left-center gap to lead off the inning. Hays advanced to third on a wild pitch, and after a walk to Ethan McMichael put runners at the corners, Tom Schilling grounded out. The groundout advanced McMichael,but could not score Hays.
With one out and two on, Malyle Thurman came to the plate. After taking a pitch for strike one, he grounded the next pitch to the right side, scoring Hays from third and giving the Canes a 2-0 lead.
In the third, the Canes added to the lead with freshman Evan Diaz reaching base on an error to lead off, followed by Sands lacing a double to move Diaz to third. Both runners advanced, with Diaz scoring, after a wild pitch to Tres Cohran. On the next pitch, Cohran drove a ball to left, scoring Sands on a sacrifice fly, and upping the lead to four.
The War Eagles went quietly in the third, with a lone single sandwiched between two more Hays strikeouts. The Canes quickly followed suit, leaving two runners on base in the top of the fourth inning. In the bottom half, the War Eagles plated four runs, thanks to a bout of wildness (four walks), coupled with sloppy play (two errors), along with a single hit. The score was four-all.
Cohran led off with a single, and with one out Hays again came through in the clutch, driving the first pitch of the at-bat deep over the center fielder’s head. Cohran tried to score on the play, but was called out at the plate. Freshman McMichael came through with an RBI single with two outs, and this gave the Canes the lead once more.
The bats were quiet again until the bottom half of the sixth. With the War Eagles batting, a leadoff double, followed by a hit-by-pitch and a single loaded the bases with no one out. Holder, the third baseman for the War Eagles, hit a two-run double to center to give Putnam their first lead of the game, at 6-5 in the bottom of the sixth.
Good defensive play, along with a clutch full count strikeout by Schilling, allowed the Canes to get out of the inning with that being the only damage done. Entering the top of the seventh, the Canes were down to their last chance. After a first pitch strike to Cohran, the next four pitches were out of the zone, putting him on base to lead off the inning. The War Eagles made a pitching change, taking out the starting pitcher, Ashton Jones, after six innings of work.
The new pitcher for the War Eagles had some trouble finding the strike zone, walking Chandler Aguirre and Hays to move Cohran up to third, where he would score on a wild pitch to the backstop two pitches later. McMichael, who was hitting at the time, also walked to re-load the bases. Schilling grounded into a fielder’s choice, with the War Eagle defense getting the out at the plate. With the bases still loaded, the wildness continued, with Thurman reaching first on a hit-by-pitch and scoring Hays from third on the play, giving the Canes the lead at 7-6, but they weren’t done yet.
Freshman Grady Jordan walked, plating Austin Young, who had come in as a pinch runner for McMichael. A new pitcher was brought in, and he was immediately greeted by Diaz, who singled on a 2-2 pitch and drove in Schilling, who had reached earlier in the inning on the fielder’s choice.
With Sands up to the plate again, another wild pitch plated Thurman to increase the lead. Sands eventually walked to reload the bases, and the next batter, Cohran did the same, scoring Jordan.
Aguirre hit a ground ball and reached on error, scoring the final run of the game for the Hurricanes, and putting them up to a 12-6 lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Hurricanes had to hold off a barrage of self-induced errors (more walks and errors), along with some timely hitting to hold the War Eagles down and pull off the 12-11 win.
The Hurricane baseball program began their regular season play last week opening the season against the Glascock County Panthers. The Canes lost 13-6.
The Canes will hit the road this week, on Tuesday at GMC and Wednesday at Monroe Area. Saturday they will be at home for the first of two home Diamond Days, taking on Loganville Christian at 2 p.m. and Alcovy at 5 p.m.