Eagles lose late lead, fall to Red Level 8-5
Published 3:00 am Tuesday, March 22, 2016
The Goshen Eagles jumped out a 3-0 lead before a four-run, two out rally in the seventh inning gave Red Level the 8-5 win on Monday.
“I was kind of wondering how our mental aspect was going to be coming off the emotional roller coater we had in our first area games,” said Eagles head coach Robby Kinsaul. “Baseball is a funny game. Sometimes you win; sometimes you loose. The good thing about baseball is that it teaches you a lot.”
The Eagles looked to have the game in control in the first four innings. Starting pitcher Landon Wilkes pitched four innings without letting up any runs and giving up only one hit with eight strikeouts.
“He looked like he struggled a little bit to find his rhythm in the first inning,” Kinsaul said. “In the final three innings it looked like he found it. His breaking ball was really good today. That is important for our pitchers, to be able to throw a pitch for a strike that is not a fast ball.”
The Eagles jumped out to a 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning. Dalton Bunce started the offense for the Eagles when he reached base after a throwing error. Hunter Williams followed the error with a walk and Adam Turner grounded out to second, driving in Bunch for the game’s first run.
The Eagles tacked on two more runs in the bottom half of the third.
Peters led off the inning with a single followed up by a RBI single by Bailey Singleton. Turner drove in his second run of the game when he reached on a fielder’s choice that scored Singleton.
The Eagles played more station-to-station baseball in the fourth and added their fourth run as Wilkes scored on a Singleton single.
After Wilks finished the fourth inning, Kinsaul brought in Bunch to pitch the remainder of the ball game.
After the Eagles scored a run in the bottom of the fifth when Iyan Hinkle stole home, the Tigers made their move. They scored two runs in the top of sixth on a single. Bunce was able to get out of the inning with letting up the tying run.
After the Eagles score in the fifth, their bats went silent.
“We just have to work on our hitting,” Kinsaul said. “Losing Braxton (Stewart) was a big blow to our offense because he meant so much to us. It needs to be next man and we just need to hit the ball.
The Eagles finished with six hits against the Tigers.
The Eagles were one out away from getting out with a win when Tigers scored four two-out runs to end the Tigers hopes of getting a win.
Singleton finished the day for the Eagles with two hits while, Peterson and Steels also had key hits for Goshen.