Mason(ry) work yields 27 strikeouts in extra inning win for Indians

The Masons were at their best Thursday night in the 2-1 win
over Alexander. Mason Meyer (left) and Mason Frady
 combined for 27 strikeouts in 12 innings. Frady's 16 K's tied
a single game EC mark set in 2004 by Kyle Bedrosian. 

For 12 innings, fans of strong pitching or the work of a masonry would have appreciated the Thursday night non-region encounter between the East Coweta Indians and the Alexander Cougars in Sharpsburg.

However, there has to be some offense and Trevor Gaddy provided that with two outs in the bottom of the 12^th inning as his single scored Ethan Darrow from second base to provide the Indians with a 2-1 victory.

The win was the seventh in a row for the Indians who will take their 7-2 record to Cobb County Friday afternoon for a Region 2-AAAAAAA game with the Pebblebrook Falcons.

With the game tied at 1-1, Devonte Brown almost provided the heroics for the Indians as he lined a shot to left field, however the play resulted in a loud out as the left fielder took the ball out of the sky.

Ryan Dyal followed with a single but was forced at second as Darrow reached first on a fielder’s choice.

With Gaddy at bat, Darrow stole second and was able to advance to third on an errant pickoff throw and almost came home as the throw to third nearly went into the Indians’ dugout.

Gaddy ended the drama for the Indians as he lined a single into left field for the winning run.

The winning pitcher was Mason Meyer who pitched the extra five frames allowing two hits and recording 11 strikeouts, but the Indians’ other Mason(ry) worker had a dominating seven innings.

effort as Mason Frady allowed two hits and recorded 16 strikeouts.

The 16 strikeout performance by Frady tied a high mark for an East Coweta Indian in a single game as Kyle Bedrosian tossed the same number in a 4-2 victory over the Newnan Cougars on Friday March 26, 2004 in Sharpsburg.

After the first batter of the game for Alexander reached on an error, Frady may have shown panic as he promptly retired 13 in a row with 10 via the strikeout route.

The only time Frady found himself in trouble was in the top of the fifth inning when he allowed a one out single which was followed by an infield error.

However, Frady recovered by recording two strikeouts to end the frame and retired the next six batters.

In the top of the seventh, Frady met with a slight problem as a line drive off the bat of Zach Smith went of the pitcher’s leg and rolled to third.

After tossing a couple of warmup pitches, Frady went back to work and retired the next two batters on...strikeouts.

That spelled the end of the night for Frady who would turn the game over to Meyer who started his stint with a strikeout as he breezed through the top of the eighth.

In the latter stages of the game, the Indians had opportunities to get the run needed for victory but Cougar hurlers had the big pitch when needed and the game would remain scoreless until the top of the 11^th inning.

After Meyer retired the first batter on a strikeout, he allowed two consecutive singles and appeared to avoid further trouble but an infield error followed and the Cougars took the lead with the first run of the game.

The Indians responded in the bottom of the frame as Coleman Wood reached on a one out single and Ryan Griffin was sent into the game as a pinch-runner.

Griffin moved to second after a two out walk to Nate Gick and advanced to third on a passed ball before coming home on a wild pitch with the tying run.

In the top of the 12^th inning, the defensive play of the night that wasn’t a strikeout came courtesy of a play by Brown at shortstop as he leaped in the air to catch a line drive off the bat of the Cougars’ Gavon Harmon.

An infield error followed but Meyer had enough left in his tank to retire the next two batters on consecutive called third strikes to reach 11.