RACELAND Good things come to those who wait.
That adage was on full display Thursday. Raceland waited until the sixth inning to tie it and the seventh inning to take their only lead of the night to walk off with a 4-3 win over Fairview.
“It was a good high school baseball game,” Raceland coach Marty Mills said. “We just kind of stayed the course and made our plays. Our defense is pretty solid. But hats off to Fairview. They played a really clean game, just solid ball. We hit ‘at-em’ balls all night. They were right at ‘em. But Fairview did what they needed to do. It was a good ball game.”
As for the Eagles, the waiting will have to continue. They came up just short of beating the Rams for the first time since 2016.
But Fairview can still find victory in defeat. The Eagles come away knowing they went toe-to-toe with a top team in the region and did so with zero errors from top to bottom.
“I think when you can play a game like that with no errors, it makes a statement,” Fairview coach Cody Sammons said. “We came back from the beach and picked up a couple of good wins. I told them we can compete with anybody, and we showed that today.”
The Rams trailed 3-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning when Michael Pennington reached on a single to left field with one out.
Sam Lynd came up next and batted Pennington in with a dart of his own to left field. Pennington scored just ahead of Eli Cummings’ throw home.
That was Step 1 for the Raceland.
The Rams were back at the top of their lineup to begin the bottom of the seventh.
Kadin Shore immediately hit a ball toward second base and beat out a throw from Tevin Smith for an infield single.
The Eagles elected to intentionally walk Eli Lynd before putting Cummings on the mound.
Shore didn't make it to third on a fielder's choice. Cummings looked to get a second out, pitching Connor Thacker to a 1-2 count, but Thacker had other ideas.
Thacker sent the next offering into right field that gave Raceland courtesy runner Bryden Bush ample time to get the game-winning run.
It was a nice way for Thacker to end a game that probably didn’t start the way he would have liked.
Fairview got on the board out of the gate after Thacker threw back-to-back bases-loaded walks. Izaac Johnson's single and an error allowed Tanner Reihs to reach base to give the Eagles early scoring opportunities.
But Thacker made up for it by settling down in the second and third frames, giving up just one hit and striking out a pair in the span. He also posted two hits in addition to his walk-off single.
“The thing with Thacker… it’s a mouthful,” Mills said with a laugh. “He’s matured so much since his freshman year. His freshman year, he couldn’t have done that; his sophomore year, he couldn’t have done that. Now, he does that. He’s focused at the plate, has a real good eye, and I trust him at the plate. I trust him everywhere. It was his first start of the year; we gave him 50 or 60 pitches, just trying to build his arm up.”
In the bottom of the first, the Rams quickly made up the ground lost when Kadin Shore reached on a hit-by-pitch in the leadoff position. He was brought around to third after a sacrifice fly from Lynd before stealing home on a wild pitch.
The second run came on an expertly placed bunt from Cade Coldiron that got Landon Bloss home.
Both teams’ defenses settled in from there.
Raceland put Breyer Parsons on the mound in place of Thacker to start the fourth frame.
After three innings of a 2-2 tie, the Eagles went ahead by working TSmith around the bases.
“Raceland pitchers don’t need extra help,” Sammons said with a laugh. “They don’t need us swinging out of the zone. We have to find our pitch and that’s something we’re working on a bit.”
Smith ...
