After falling behind 7-0 through two and-a-half innings, the West Greene Buffaloes chipped away at their deficit and clawed all the way back to complete their 9-8 comeback win over the North Greene Huskies on Friday night.
“Just another calm baseball game, nothing exciting. I don’t know, I’m out of breath to be honest with you,” Buffs head coach Adrian Sauceman jokingly said. “To come back and kind of piece it together little bit by little bit and come through with the win was awesome.”
It was not a normal night in the town of Mosheim. A minor inconvenience in the middle of West Greene’s comeback efforts paused the game for 20 minutes. Half of the field lights cut off with one out and two players in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh inning. When the lights came back on, the night’s hero made his welcome.
Ethan Carpenter started the night with a rough outing on the mound. He only made it through 2.2 innings and allowed six earned runs, three hits, and five walks. He didn’t do well at the plate either entering the seventh. He was 0-for-3 before stepping into the batter’s box after the short delay. When he did get the opportunity to bat with runners in scoring position, he made the most out of it. The junior delivered the game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh just before the lights went out again to seal West Greene’s comeback.
“To battle through adversity and come through with the game-winning hit right there was huge. Huge for him confidence wise too. He’s not had a great year at the plate so far. To come up in that situation with everything that’s gone on and to come through like that was awesome,” Sauceman expressed.
Sophomore Jayden Cox was credited with the win after coming in to relieve Carpenter in the third. He finished with a line of 4.1 innings, five hits, two earned runs, and three strikeouts.
For the Huskies, it was Aiden Halley who got the start and delivered a great outing. He pitched six complete innings allowing five hits, two earned runs, one walk, and struck out six batters. 62 of his 82 pitches were strikes.
“We’ve seen him three or four times in his career and that’s the best that we’ve seen him. He was on tonight. He’s a good pitcher anyways, but he was on tonight throwing it really well,” Sauceman spoke highly about Halley.
Even though he delivered a solid outing, his defense wasn’t there to back him up. The Huskies committed five errors on defense.
West Greene picked up a season sweep with last night’s win. They improved to 10-4 while North Greene dropped their second-straight and fell to 7-2.
North Greene lived off walks and hit by pitches in the first inning. Jake Duffy led off the game with a single, but four of the next five batters were either walked or hit by a pitch. Isaac Gaby and Christian Cogdill walked to load the bags. Owen Pierce was hit by a pitch to score Duffy and put one on the scoreboard. Tyler Britton walked next and Gaby walked home. Wyatt Burns hit into a sac fly and courtesy runner Turner Collins scored.
The Huskies led 3-0 after the first.
The third inning featured four two-out runs scored by North Greene. Jaiden Bailey was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and scored Cogdill. Aiden Halley helped himself with a two-run single to plate Pierce and Burns. Gaby drew a walk with the bases loaded again to score Bailey. The lead grew to 7-0 before West Greene ever had a base runner.
Immediately after North Greene took a 7-0 lead in the middle of the third, West Greene started the comeback. Jacob Greene led off with a double and Bronson Brown singled next. Greene scored on an error and Kaven Greene roped a pitch down the left field line to score Brown.
The Buffaloes made it 7-2 and drew within one run with four more in the fourth. Jhonen Bath doubled and Jacob Greene walked to put two aboard. They both ended up scoring on a fielding error by North Greene. Carpenter struck out next, but the third strike was dropped and created a potential run scoring situation for West Greene. Brown waited until the ball was thrown to first and sprinted home from third and slid home safely before the tag. Kaven Greene hit into a sacrifice fly and scored Carpenter to end the inning.
“We put the bat on the ball, we got a couple bunts down, got a couple steals in. Had a little bit of help when you put pressure on a defense, sometimes you get help from a defense. We did a really good job with that. Just stringing some things together any way we can. It ain’t always gotta be pretty just be effective,” Coach Sauceman said.
North Greene’s lead shrank to one run at 7-6, but grew back to a slim two-run margin in the sixth. Cogdill singled to left field and was driven home two batters later on Britton’s RBI-double.
Heading into the seventh the Huskies led 8-6 and tried to add some insurance runs by putting two runners aboard with two outs. Back-to-back walks by Duffy and Gaby added two on the bags, but they were left stranded and wondering what could’ve been if just one could’ve scored.
West Greene’s seventh inning started with a four-pitch walk to Kaven Greene. Braden McCamey had been hitless all game, but smacked the first pitch he saw up the middle for a single. A wild pitch advanced both runners into scoring position. Even though Carpenter gets the praise for his game-winning hit, Brandon Hunter delivered the game-tying, two-run single to knot the score at 8-8.
The field lights on the third-base line and in left field suddenly went out and caused a small 20-minute delay until they came back on. After the delay, that’s when Ethan Carpenter stepped up and delivered the game-winning hit to score Hunter and win the game 9-8.
Eight different players were credited with hits for the Buffs. Kaven Greene and Carpenter had two RBI’s each. Jacob Greene and Brown scored two runs each.
Jake Duffy, Owen Pierce, and Aiden Halley each collected two hits for the Huskies. Pierce led with two runs and Duffy and Jake Burns had two RBI’s each.
North Greene travels to University High for an important District 1-1A matchup on Monday. West Greene does the same and travels across the river for a District 1-2A showdown with South Greene on Monday.
