Fairfield Central’s Javarius Cook goes into second underneath the leaping effort of RWA’s Matt Taylor.
It was a shaky third inning for the Richard Winn Academy baseball squad Friday night as starting pitcher Sidney Edenfield struggled with the Red Devils at Great Falls High School. Staked to a 6-0 lead, Edenfield allowed all five batters faced in the third to reach base and come around to score before Cameron Cooper came on to make his pitching debut for the Eagles and shut down the side. Cooper and the Eagles held off the Devils’ advance, outlasting Great Falls 9-6 to run their overall record to 5-2.
Cooper earned the win for the Academy, throwing five innings and giving up just one run on three hits, five strikeouts and no walks. Edenfield left in the third with four earned runs, three walks, one strikeout and one hit batsman.
Patrick Pope led off the game for the Eagles with a first-pitch home run. Austin Knox followed that two batters later with a two-run shot, driving in Matt Taylor, who reached on a walk. Knox went 3-for-4 with a pair of dingers, scoring two runs and driving in four. Pope was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs, while Taylor went 1-for-4 with a stolen base and two runs scored. John Coleman was 2-for-4 on the night with one run scored.
After scoring three runs in the top of the first, the Eagles tacked on three more in the top of the second. Great Falls narrowed the gap to 6-5 with their big third inning push, but the Eagles edged away with a run in the fourth and fifth innings. Richard Winn added their final run in the seventh. Cooper gave up his only run in the bottom of the seventh to close out the win.
The win was a recovery for the Eagles, who dropped the second game in their crosstown rivalry against Fairfield Central at home March 14, 7-3. Pope took the loss for the Eagles, going four-plus innings and giving up four runs, three of which were earned. Pope surrendered three hits, two walks, struck out three and hit one batter. Elijah Tucker came on in the fifth and closed out the game with three innings of work. Tucker allowed three runs, all of them earned, on four hits, a walk, one hit batter and one strikeout. The Eagles’ defense, meanwhile, committed seven errors behind their battery.
The Eagles scattered a handful of hits at the plate, with Knox and Tucker going 1-for-4, Pope 1-for-2, Taylor 1-for-3 and Edenfield 1-for-1 with two walks.
Compton Walker, in three innings of relief, got the win for the Griffins. Walker also went 2-for-4 at the plate with a home run, a single, two RBIs, three stolen bases and three runs scored. Stanley McManus was a home run shy of the cycle, going a perfect 3-for-3 with four RBIs.
Tuesday night, the Eagles kept their winning ways alive, blasting Newberry Academy 9-0.
Blake Pauley got the win for the Academy, his first of the season. Corey Davis went 2-for-3 at the plate, while Pope, Knox and Coleman each went 2-for-4.
