It was a special edition of baseball on Good Friday with an early afternoon start at South Greene, and though it was not easy North Greene eventually pulled away to a 16-9 victory.
North Greene Head Coach Jamey Palmer said, “Well, we knew after playing this team last night that they’d come ready to play. Especially out here on Rebel Hill, they always play us tough out here. We probably saw a couple of their best pitchers today. I’m super proud of our guys…when there is no school it takes a while to wake up and I felt that’s what happened today, the way they ran the base paths and attacked the baseball they kept us in it early.”
North Greene was on the scoreboard first when leadoff hitter Jaiden Bailey singled to right and promptly stole second and third base. A couple batters later Isaac Gaby singled home Bailey for the games first run and short-lived lead for the visiting Huskies.
In the bottom of the inning Dawson Ripley reached on an error and finally landed on third base after a bad throw and a ground out. Colton Fillers walked and stole second base to put himself in scoring position. Eli Fillers then singled to right field scoring both runner. Christian Darnell followed that with an RBI single to center to give South Greene a 3-1 lead.
Cameron Kinser made quick work of the Huskies in the top of the second inning, and then in the home half of the second inning the Rebels plated three more runs.
Zach Mason reached on a fielders choice and Ripley stroked a double to left center to put runners at second and third for T Ricker. Ricker answered the call with a two-run single up the middle. Eli Fillers then brought home Ricker with a double to left field, and the Rebels were up 6-1 after the second inning.
In the third inning North Greene’s Issac Halley singled to right center, Gaby walked and Colton Cogdill was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Colten Suggs. Suggs sent a shot to the deepest part of the ballpark, and it looked like the ballpark might not hold it, but Zach Mason tracked it down for the second out of the inning. It was still good enough to score Halley from third.
Aidan Halley singled pasted the shortstop to score Gaby and the Huskies had inched closer at 6-3 going into the bottom of the third inning. Starting pitcher Aiden Halley made it through the third without allowing a run to Rebels.
Colton Cutshall walked to start the fourth inning, as did Bailey and Gaby to load the bases for Cogdill. Ripley was then called upon to pitch and was treated with a sac-fly by Cogdill scoring Cutshall.
Tyler Britton followed that with a single just inside the bag at first which scored Bailey and Gaby and tied the game at 6-6.
Britton took over on the mound for North Greene in the fourth inning. Ripley reached on an error and after a stolen base, a fly out and a strikeout he scored on a throwing error that resulted in the Rebels regaining the lead at 7-6 after four innings.
In the top of the fifth inning, the Huskies broke loose for six runs. Aidan Halley walked, Wyatt Burns hit a solid single to centerfield and Bailey walked to load the bases for Isaac Halley. Halley fisted one into short left field for two RBIs and the lead at 8-7.
After a double steal by Halley and Bailey, Gaby hit a sac-fly to score Bailey for run number nine. Then the Rebels pitchers lost vision of the strike zone and walked or hit five consecutive batters, scoring an additional three runs before the side finally came to a close, but not before the Huskies took the lead at 12-7.
South Greene got another unearned run off Britton, but the Huskies answered with three more in the bottom of the sixth inning. Gaby reached on a fielder’s choice and later scored on a wild pitch. Cogdill walked as did Britton. Suggs singled home Cogdill. Burns was hit by a pitch to bring home Britton and the Huskies had a comfortable lead at 14-8 midway through the sixth inning.
Britton had the games first and only 1-2-3 inning in the bottom half of the sixth. The Huskies added two more runs in the top of the seventh and the Rebels sent one across the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Huskies had pulled off the comeback 16-9
Tyler Britton was big story for the Huskies, coming on in relief, he pitched four innings. In his four innings he only allowed two hits, but more importantly silencing the hot bats the Rebels had early in the game. Gaby and Isaac Halley each had two hits to lead the Huskies at the plate; Gaby also had three RBIs as did Suggs.
Ripley had three base hits to lead the Rebels at the plate, while Eli Fillers had three RBIs.
