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Clover baseball sweeps Eagles
CLOVERDALE -- The final season of West Central Conference play started early with the Cloverdale baseball team hosting the South Putnam Eagles Monday night. Two games that were supposed to be played over two days turned into a one-night doubleheader because of potential weather issues Tuesday.
The Clovers won both games, 9-2 and 7-5.
Junior Brayden White pitched the first game for the Clovers. He pitched the entire game and only allowed two runs, which were unearned, on two hits and two walks allowed. He had 14 strikeouts.
"In the first game Brayden (White) pitched really well," Clovers' coach Jarrod Duff said. "We had a lot of guys make plays. We played a solid first game."
White outdueled by junior Brandon Gierke of the Eagles. Gierke had a rough night on the mound giving up six runs in the first game on four hits and three walks. Five of those runs were earned. He had nine strikeouts.
Junior Josh Stewart relieved Gierke after 4.1 innings of work. He gave up three more runs on three hits and three walks.
"The first game was really quite a pitchers' duel," Eagles' coach Zack Love said. "Both pitchers really pitched well. We had one bad inning and that was the difference for us. We weren't able to recover from that. We struggled offensively."
Senior Branston Scott had two hits in a 2-for-3 outing with a walk in the first game and White had three runs batted in.
Cloverdale had to use three pitchers in the second game, but they ultimately got the job done. Sophomore Duke Duff started the game and pitched five full innings before Troy Davis came in to relieve him. Duff only allowed seven men on base while striking out another seven. Davis pitched 1.2 innings and gave up an earned run. The Eagles earned all five runs.
Freshman Nick Winders came in to finish the game out and did so but not before giving up a run.
"In the second game we started off really well," Duff said. "But through the middle to the end we hurt ourselves. We made some silly mistakes missing signs, having base-running mistakes, and not making plays. The most encouraging thing is we just kept grinding it out. There are going to be nights when you're not on your A game and you have to grind it out. That's what we did tonight."
The Clovers had a six-run lead, 7-1 in the second game, but they managed to hold the Eagles who stranded runners on the bases and the Eagles could only get four more runs. This was an issue in the first game when more than five were left on in the first four innings.
"It's unbelievable (the character)," Duff said. "You can either fold or keep grinding and we kept grinding. I'm really happy to be starting 3-0 and 2-0 in the conference."
"We spotted them a six-run lead to start the game," Love said. "It turned out to be too much, but we fought back. I'm proud of my team's effort. We kept our heads in it and gave ourselves a chance to win it."
Duff said the hitting was good on the night, but he wanted to see more consistency. In the first game the team was 7-for-23 and in the second game the team was 5-for-23.
"We need to be more Consistent," Duff said. "We were a little streaky at times. I think we hit the ball fairly well. We're a team that's going to have to put some runs up to win."
At Cloverdale
Game 1
South Putnam 000 000 2--2
Cloverdale 100 070 1--9
Pitching: W--White (C), L--Gierke (SP)
2B: Scott (C), Gierke (SP), Stewart (SP)
Game 2
South Putnam 010 201 1--5
Cloverdale 051 100 0--7
Pitching: W--Duff (C), L--McHugh (SP)
HR: Davis (C), Lucas (SP)
2B: Atwood (C)