Early deficit keeps Eagles from challenging Golden Arrows

It is tough to win games when you dig yourself into a hole. The South Putnam Eagles found that out on Tuesday night.

The host Eagles gave up a five-run first inning and a four-run third and could never recover as they fell to the Sullivan Golden Arrows 9-4 in a Western Indiana Conference high school baseball game.

The Eagles chipped away late in the game but could never really put together a threat to rally. The loss drops the Eagles to 1-8 overall and 0-5 in the WIC. Sullivan’s victory improved their record to 4-10 and 2-2 in conference play.

“I don’t think they scored any after the first couple innings or so. We played pretty well after that, but just couldn’t get our bats going,” South Putnam head coach Kurt Kyle said.

The Eagles struggled early as Sullivan was able to string together three walks and four singles in the first inning to put up five runs.

The Arrows loaded the bases and Tyler Kellett drove in a run. A walk forced in another run before Ty Hamilton and Ryder Pinkston had singles that scored runs for Sullivan as the Eagles trailed 5-0 after a half inning.

South got a run back in the first. Wyatt Mullin singled to lead off the inning, moved to third on an Ethan Harcourt single and then scored a Kyle Glasson single, but the Eagles left two runners on base as Kellett pitched his way out of the inning.

Two innings later the Arrows looked like they would run away with the game. Cody Adams led off with an infield single and would score on an Eagle error. Isaak Osborne would have a big two RBI double and Jacob Hawkins singled in a run before the Eagles stopped the bleeding. South would trail 9-1 after three innings.

Starting in the fourth inning the Eagles would start chipping away. Isayah Hardwick led off with a walk and would come around to score on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 9-2.

South’s Cam Bozell would limit the Arrows over the final four innings as he held them scoreless from the mound to give the Eagles a chance.

“I didn’t want to have to pitch Cam tonight, but he did a really nice job for us after the first inning,” Kyle said.

Hayden Tincher would walk to lead off the sixth and move to second on a Bozell walk. Tincher would end up scoring on a wild pitch, but South would still trail 9-3 heading into the final inning.

South would not put much together in the seventh, but what it did was impressive by Kyle Glasson. The junior outfielder hit a bomb to centerfield to give the crowd something to cheer about as the solo home run cut the lead to the final score of 9-4.

Sullivan’s offense was led by Osborne, Adams and Pinkston with multi-hit games, while Osborne and Hamilton had doubles. South’s Glasson had two hits, two RBI’s including the home run and Mullin had a pair of singles.

“We are getting better. We just haven’t put it all together. The good thing is we are having fun and improving,” Kyle said.

Sullivan 504 000 0 — 9 12 3

South Putnam 100 101 1 — 4 5 3

WP – Kellett 5.0, Hamilton 2.0

LP – Nichols 0.1, Bozell 6.2

2B – Osborne, Hamilton (SHS)

HR – Glasson (SP)

RBI – Osborne 2, Pinkston 2, Hawkins, Kellett, Adams, Hamilton (SHS), Glasson 2 (SP)