Eads Baseball Errors at Regionals

Loses to Las Animas 5-0

By Betsy Barnett

May 21, 2004

According to head coach Billy Koehler, this was "a group of guys short on numbers but long on hustle." The upstart group who struggled with a very young line up and the on-again-off-again availability of some of their experienced players were not expected to get anywhere near the Regional playoffs in Las Animas on Saturday morning. But get there they did after sound defeats over McClave and Swink a week ago.

Eads would come into the first round of the state qualifying regional tournament ranked 15 out of a field of 16 teams, all 2A except for Granada and Eads, and they would be matched with the undefeated and powerful Las Animas Trojans who dropped down from 3A a year ago and were seeded 2nd in the prestigious field of sixteen. Marcus Gilmore would be the ace on the mound for Koehler and put in an outstanding performance allowing no earned runs on the day. But it would be the errors that determined the outcome of the game and the eventual demise of the Eagles. Las Animas would get two unearned runs in the second inning off a throwing error to first and an error in the outfield with two outs. They would then complete their production in the third inning with three more runs when an error in the outfield resulted in a Trojan triple with bases loaded. Eads could only manage three hits against the Trojan pitcher who was not fast but kept the Eagles off-balance with a lot of off-speed and spot

throwing. Steven Gilmore would lead off with a single in the first but Eads would lose their early momentum when Gilmore would be caught at second on an attempted stolen base. The other two hits came on a triple by Kelly Lindholm and a single by Dain Barnett but the Eagle batters could put no production behind either hit leaving Lindholm and Barnett stranded on the base pads.

With the loss Eads ended their season and will lose seniors Steven Gilmore who pitched and played short stop, Anthony Voss from first base and outfield positions, and Shawn Kraft from the outfield to graduation. The 2004 team did some good things throughout the season as they broke four school records including Marcus Gilmore hitting six home runs in the season besting the previous record of five, Steven Gilmore breaking the Assist record, Anthony Voss breaking the Put- Out record, and Marcus Gilmore breaking the Most Runs record.