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Eagles' comeback effors fall short against Martinsville
By the time the bottom of the fifth inning rolled around Friday night, few people could have blamed the crowd at South Putnam High School for thinking that the host Eagles would be batting for the last time against Martinsville.
Trailing 14-2 at that point, the hosts' bats suddenly got scorching hot, pushing nine runs across the plate in the fifth and sixth innings before ultimately falling 16-11 to the Artesians.
South Putnam head coach Zach Love said that the squad aimed to get off to a better start but found Martinsville a tough group to hit early.
"Our thing today was that we wanted to get off to a better start offensively," Love said. "But it took us four innings before we started swinging the bats well.
"I felt Tyler Long came out and pitched pretty well.
We played well in the field. They put a couple of guys on and got off to a better start than we did."
Long had given up a double and a home run through the first three innings but was touched up in the fourth inning, surrendering five runs via a three-run home run, an error and back-to-back singles.
Jake Carmichael came in to start the fifth, only to be stung for five runs himself in two-thirds of an inning after walking two batters, hitting two batters and giving up a single.
Wyatt Nees came in with the score at 11-2, giving up another three-run home run, extending the Martinsville lead to 14-2.
The hosts could have easily folded at that point but instead began to deliver hammer shots of their own, something Love said came around when the squad put the ball in play.
"We had a couple of opportunities up to that point," Love said. "We started turning on the ball and putting the ball in play and good things happened."
Carmichael had driven in two runs in the fourth inning and Nees added the first two of the fifth inning with a two-run home run to bring the deficit down to 14-4.
Brandon Gierke then swatted a two-run shot that prevented the 10-run rule from going into effect, though still leaving the Eagles trailing 14-6.
Nees kept the Artesians in check in the top of the sixth inning to send the hosts back out to bat with a spring in their step.
Grady McHugh walked to start the inning, Trevor Long singled to deep left-center field and after Nees struck out and Zane Crosby grounded into a fielder's choice, Joe Waters singled home McHugh for the inning's first run.
Tyler Long belted a double that scored Waters and Crosby before Gierke launched his second home run, a lunging shot that cleared the left-center field fence to cut the deficit to 14-11.
Nees got the first two outs of the seventh but Martinsville managed to add a pair of runs to secure the 16-11 final score.
Love noted that while the final score was a five-run loss, the squad had certainly gotten the attention of the Artesians.
"I don't know that Martinsville expected this game to go seven innings," Love said. "They probably felt pretty good about their lead going into the bottom of the fifth but I'm proud of the guys' effort."
Still looking for its first conference win of the season, South Putnam hosts Monrovia on Monday.
Even coming off a loss, Love said the squad needed to carry over the confidence gained from the final few innings into Monday's contest.
"I think this gives us some momentum going into next week," Love said. "We play Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and today showed that we are capable of putting some runs on the board.
"I hope that translates to next week and gives us confidence. It was a loss tonight but it was a confidence builder and we need to use it as such."
At South Putnam
Martinsville 012 560 2 -- 16 8 1
South Putnam 000 245 0 -- 11 1 2
WP -- Lavender
LP -- Ty. Long
HR -- Lavender, Higginbotham, Milar (M); Gierke (2), Nees (SP)
2B -- Lavender (2), Thomas (2) (M); Ty. Long, Carmichael (SP)
Next Game: South Putnam (1-6, 0-4 WCC) hosts Monrovia Monday.