Eads Secures Conference; Splits with Cheyenne Wells
April 18, 2003
A grand slam by spot-hitter Keyvis Gilmore, the first dinger of his high school career, came at a very opportune time for the Eads Eagles who were battling to get the upper hand in their three-team conference. Gilmore’s base-clearing shot put Eads up, 12-8, in the top of the seventh and ultimately got the Eagles the win, 12-10, in the nightcap. Earlier in the day, the Tigers had slipped past Eads, 8-7, to take the first contest.
Eads needed one of the two games to secure the conference lead.
In the first game shaky batting and fielding by Eads allowed Cheyenne Wells to hang around and eventually win the contest in the bottom of seventh and coming into the inning tied after Eads had scored in the top of the seventh to knot the game. Two straight errors by Eads, who committed seven in the contest, loaded the bases with no outs. The Eagles’ only hope was to squeeze the infield and get the force at home in order to hold on to the tie. They got the first force at home when third baseman Will Johnson made a hustle play on a line roller by Tiger Kyle Wamsley, but the second throw to home was off the target allowing Tyler Baker to come in on the throwing error and the first one was owned by Cheyenne Wells, 8-7. Eads had done a nice job coming back into the first contest in the sixth inning when they scored four runs starting with Kelly Lindholm’s solo homer over the center field fence. Miles Philpy would score off a single, Randy Wilson would walk and get around to score, and Anthony Voss would arrive on base after the Tiger catcher missed a third strike. Voss would score off of another error from the Tigers.
Miles Smith was the winning pitcher throwing a complete game. In the second contest, Tyler Baker would take the reins for Cheyenne Wells but give them up midway through the fourth inning when the Eagle bats found his speed scoring three runs in the third and four more in the fourth before Smith would again be called to the mound. After throwing 145 pitches in the first contest, Smith showed a gutsy performance getting out of the fourth’s jam and holding Eads scoreless in the fifth and sixth.
However, he would run out of steam after throwing 200+ pitches and Eads would finally work Smith to exhaustion.
In the top of the seventh Wilson walked and Lindholm singled to put both runners in scoring position. The bottom of the order came up for Eads and a fly out and a strikeout put two outs on the field and Eads still trailing, 7-8. Smith, however, hit the wall against A.J. McCracken who battled to a walk to load the bases. Then came Gilmore and his huge shot over the center field fence. That would put the score at 11-8 for Eads but they weren’t finished quite yet. Smith would then walk Johnson who would get in scoring position on a passed ball. Catcher Dain Barnett would then send Johnson home on a single shot that hit the right field fence. One more fly ball and Eads would retire the bat but not until they had the Tigers in a big jam, 12-8. The Eagles would show jitters in the bottom of the seventh committing two errors resulting in two unearned runs for the Tigers. However, Lindholm would calmly work his way out of the jam and a nice play at second base by Vance Cole would end the contest with Eads getting the wild win, 12-10.
Gilmore had a supreme outing on both sides of the field for Eads as he filled in some pitching duty and was very confident in the one hole offensively. Barnett would go four-for-four in the second game while Philpy would put in one of his best performances with a homer in the third with Barnett aboard and went 5-for-8 on the day.
Eads (6-4), who has secure hold of their conference, will now see Springfield on Tuesday for a double-header.