Baseball players are widely known for being superstitious, but Friday the 13th had no effect on the West Greene Buffaloes baseball team as they took both ends of a doubleheader from Unaka 15-0 in game one and 9-0 in the nightcap.
West Greene coach Adrian Sauceman said, “Pitching was good, we only had one walk in the 9 innings that we played, defense was really good too and we took advantage of mistakes. Offensively we didn’t hit it as well as I would have liked, so we got some things to work on there and stuff to clean up, but overall it’s good to win two.”
Brandon Hunter hurled a gem in game one, giving up only one hit while striking out five and only walking one over three innings to pick up the win on the mound. Ethan Carpenter, Jhonen Bath, Carter Stills, Jayden Cox, and Eli Brown all had RBI hits to lead the Buffs at the dish in game 1 for a 15-0 win.
In game two the Rangers got off to a good start in the top of the first inning when Brandon Buckles beat out an infield single off Buff starter Bronson Brown and promptly stole second base. Brown then got back-to-back strikeouts before Bailey Cannon sent a sharp single to center but Cox played the ball to perfection holding Buckles at third. Brown then coaxed a ground ball out to Conner Vines to end the inning.
In the home half of the first inning Carpenter walked to lead off the inning and went to second on a single up the middle by Bath. Cox, batting left-handed, then laid down a textbook bunt down the third base line for another single to load the bases for Brandon Hunter. Hunter sent a dribbler to first for a fielder’s choice, but it was enough to score Carpenter from third and give the Buffs the early lead at 1-0.
Brown made quick work of the Rangers in second inning while the Buffs struck for four runs in the bottom half. Stills looped a single to left, stole second and scored on a throwing error after Brown singled off the mound. Bath was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Brown later scored on a wild pitch as did Eli Brown. Bath scored the fourth run of the inning off another wild pitch and the Buffs were up 5-0 after just two innings.
Brown once again sat the Rangers down without allowing a run in the third inning. And the Buffs once again added four more runs, Christian Hunter walked, stole second and moved the third on Browns bloop single before scoring on a balk. The next four batters walked with Bath picking up an RBI when he walked with the bases loaded. Eli Brown scored on a passed ball and a throwing error scored Carpenter. The Buffs would lead 9-0 after three innings.
The top of the fourth was the Ranger best chance to score when Cannon hit a long single to left center and Vines hit a fly ball that got lost in the lights to put runners at the corners with only one out. Brown buckled down at that point striking out Jacob Shaffer and got Victor Spitzhirm to pop out to first to end the inning.
The Rangers went quietly in the top of the fifth inning as Brown sat them down in order to finish the shoutout and the complete game. Brown scattered four hits over five innings and not walking a batter to earn the victory on the mound.
The Buffs were held to only three hits, one each by Bath, Cox and Stills but drew 11 walks but were aggressive enough on the base paths to score nine runs and win both ends of the twin-bill.
