FAIRMONT — After a strong start to the season with back-to-back wins over Ritchie County and cross-town rival North Marion High, the East Fairmont Bees baseball team unfortunately suffered a setback on Tuesday evening, ending their night with a 14-1 loss to Philip Barbour.
The Colts, despite an even start for both teams, brought in six runs in the third inning to East Fairmont’s zero, and added three and four runs in the fifth and sixth innings respectively to cap off a successful day at the plate.
The Bees, led by junior Brody Bledsoe on the mound, had a solid start at the top of the first inning. Bledsoe earned a strikeout and ended the Colts’ chances of capitalizing on earning their first run with a runner left stranded on third base following the third out.
East Fairmont’s Owen Music would lead off in the bottom of the first and hit a nice ball into center field to advance to second base, but Philip Barbour starting pitcher Grant Harris would regain composure, swiftly ending the inning on the next three Bees’ at-bats.
Philip Barbour would start to show signs of life at the top of the second inning as Nick Gonzales was walked by Bledsoe at the beginning of the lineup and an errant throw resulted in Gonzales advancing to second base.
The Colts’ power hitting carried over into the next at-bat when Anthony Mosesso cranked a deep ball into right field, bringing Gonzales home for the first run of the contest for either team.
Bledsoe, though, would escape the inning after allowing a Kale Wolf single that left the bases loaded for the Colts and runners stranded to end the top of the second. East Fairmont would then counter with a run of their own at the bottom of the second inning netting the score at 1-1 heading into the top of the third.
Philip Barbour’s hot streak at the plate would carry over as Bledsoe struggled to keep the Colts’ bats from connecting on various pitches. Their six runs would allow them to maintain a 7-1 lead over the home team.
East Fairmont would not score again throughout the remainder of the contest as they struggled to hit against Harris’ combination of pitches. Harris currently possesses a 1.40 ERA on the season and has only allowed one run and one stolen base so far this year.
The Colts finished the contest with 10 hits in contrast to the Bees’ 7. East Fairmont also tallied 4 errors to Philip Barbour’s 0.
Philip Barbour moves to 2-0 on the season and will prepare for a matchup against Ritchie County this evening at 5 p.m. East Fairmont drops to 2-2 and will travel to Lincoln High Thursday evening for a 5:30 start.
