Eagles blast Panthers in 5 innings

Saturday, May 1, 2010
South Putnam first baseman Derek Dean attempts to lay a tag on Riverton Parke's Kyle Daugherty in the Eagles' 11-1 victory Friday.

GREENCASTLE -- A big inning always makes things easier and when you have a nice performance from your starting pitcher, it almost makes it look to easy.

Whether it was easy or not, the South Putnam baseball team made things look simple against Riverton Parke Friday 11-1, including a 10-run third inning.

South Putnam head coach Ryan Gilman commented on the wind and the mind set the team entered the game with to counter its effect.

"We had a couple hits and they made some really good defensive plays in the first couple innings and then we started finding some gaps and holes and hitting the ball line drives," he said. "Especially with the wind, we really wanted to focus on hitting line drives and ground balls, instead of pop flies, because we knew that they would stay in."

After the Panthers got on the board in the first inning as Zach White crushed a shot to right-center field. The next inning, South Putnam responded to tie the game, a prelude to their 10-run third inning onslaught.

John Spencer smashed a home run to right field that sent the Panthers right fielder Kyle Yeargin to the fence and over in an attempt to hold their lead.

"It was a good hit -- a good poke," Gilman said of Spencer blast. "The Riverton Parke kid had a really good shot in the first inning. We had one ourselves that got over, so we'll take it."

The Eagles third inning saw 14 batters go to the plate, with eight hits recorded on just one Riverton Parke error.

Cameron Chestnut started the inning with a single to center field and was brought home on a sacrifice fly by Brayden Freeman. Aaron Parker, Drew Cash, Freeman and Nathan Welty all recorded two-RBIs in the inning. The Eagles had 10 straight batters reach base in the inning.

South Putnam was unable to score the following two innings, but it had more than enough on the scoreboard to ensure the win.

Freeman was 2-2 with three RBIs, while Spencer was 2-2 with a home run. Drew Cash and Parker were 1-for-3 with two RBIs and Cameron Chestnut was 2-for-3 with two runs scored.

Starting pitcher Grant Zimmerman pitched the complete game, allowing five hits, while recording one walk and four strikeouts. Gilman was pleased with the effort his junior gave him on the night.

"He did a good job -- he was efficient. He had really good defense behind him and he did a good job locating pitches. He threw five good innings for us. He made that one mistake to that hitter that he hit the home run. Other than that, we did really well. Very efficient."

Emphasizing what Gilman said, the Eagles defense converted two double plays on the night to end innings and keep the Panthers from posing a threat.

South Putnam will travel to Tri-West Monday for a 5 p.m. start.

At South Putnam

Riverton Parke 100 00 -- 1 5 2

South Putnam 0110 00 -- 11 9 2

WP -- Zimmerman

LP -- Price

HR -- Spencer (SP)

Next game -- South Putnam will travel to Tri-West Monday for a 5 p.m. start.