Indians take advantage of Eagles miscues to win in five

HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL

SHARPSBURG-The East Coweta Indians took advantage of five errors and two wild pitches on a cold and windy Friday night to defeat the South Forsyth Eagles 10-0 in a game called after five innings under the mercy rule.

The victory improves the Indians’ record to 3-0 in the early season while the Eagles fell to 2-3.
The Indians scored the only run they would need on the night in the bottom of the first inning as Cameron Smith reached on a triple that went over the right fielder’s head and eventually came home on a wild pitch with one out and Cole Antmann at the plate.
In the bottom of the third inning, the Indians added to their run total as Geremy Walton reached on an infield single with two outs in the frame and came home on a double to left field by Jonathan Smith.
Two out magic returned to the Indians in the bottom of the fourth inning as Tim Manning reached on a walk and stole second before two more walks followed and a wild pitch brought him home from third.
Unfortunately for South Forsyth, the bottom of the fifth inning would become a nightmare as the Indians capitalized on errors to score seven times to end the game.
Walton led off with an infield single and stole second before coming home on a single to right by Banks who would hustle to second on the throw home and move to third on an errant pickoff attempt before he scored on a single to right from Bryce Gemmel.
After advancing to second on a groundout and advancing to third on a pinch hit single by Jordan Lewis,
Gemmel gave the Indians a 6-0 lead when he scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Manning that also allowed Lewis to reach third.
Lewis scored as Smith reached on an error by the Eagles shortstop and after Matthew Meyer  reached first after being hit by a pitch, Antmann hit a flyball to right field that was dropped allowing Smith and Meyer to score and the Indians’ batter to reach second.
For the second time of the inning, Walton came to the plate and hit a ground ball to shortstop that was mishandled and allowed Antmann to score the final run of the night.
Walton, Banks and Gemmel had two hits each in the victory while Zach McCurry had a solid outing on the mound allowing a third inning single to Zack Baus and a walk while recording four strikeouts.
The Indians will have two road games in the upcoming week with a Tuesday March 5 game at Luella and  a game on Thursday March 7 at Northside-Columbus.