Cloudy skies with a few showers after midnight. Low 39F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..
Cloudy skies with a few showers after midnight. Low 39F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
East Fairmont’s Conner Tingler throws a pitch against Liberty.
East Fairmont’s Hoyt Michael takes a lead at second base.
East Fairmont head coach Joe Price talks to Hoyt Michael and Carter Brown after a called time.
East Fairmont's Jake Vincent watches a pitch against Liberty.
East Fairmont’s Conner Tingler throws a pitch against Liberty.
East Fairmont’s Hoyt Michael takes a lead at second base.
East Fairmont head coach Joe Price talks to Hoyt Michael and Carter Brown after a called time.
East Fairmont's Jake Vincent watches a pitch against Liberty.
FAIRMONT — As far as starts to a season go, they don’t get too much better than this.
The East Fairmont Bees scored nine runs in the second inning of their season opener against the Liberty Mountaineers, and needed just five innings Thursday to walk away with a win on their home field, 12-2.
The Bees’ Conner Tingler pitched four strong innings, allowing one hit in the first that resulted in one run, and shut down the Mountaineers from there on out, finishing with nine strikeouts, three of which came in his last inning, where the junior struck out the side in succession.
“He’s going to toe the rubber for us quite a bit this year,” East Fairmont head coach Joe Price said. “Solid guy, throws strikes. He’s got some good defense behind him, he’ll throw to contact, and he got those last three strike-outs which is phenomenal. He finished stronger than he started.”
Liberty got one across the plate in the first, and carried that lead into the second after the Bees stranded two. Tingler worked out of a bases-loaded situation, striking out the last two batters to get out of the inning unscathed.
The bottom of the second boded well for the Bees, right from their first batter. Carter Brown was hit by a pitch, and he advanced to second on a passed ball. Brayden Swecker notched a double to left field, and Brown held up at third. Conner Graffius walked to load the bases. A strikeout by Liberty’s Jayce Clevenger signaled for a moment that the Mountaineers might work out of their own bases-loaded situation, but the inning was far from done.
With the top of the East Fairmont lineup back up, Clay Hershberger drew a walk to usher in Brown. Austin Vincent likewise drew a walk, and Hoyt Michael — pinch running for Swecker — came home as well, and the Bees took a 2-1 lead with one out.
With that, the Mountaineers switched their pitcher, but the change did not help. East’s three-hole hitter, Danny Raddish, belted a liner in between the third baseman and shortstop, and brought in Graffius. Tingler helped himself out by drawing a walk that scored Hershberger. Joey Alvaro kept the line moving with a soft-hit single to left driving in Austin Vincent.
The order came back around to Brown by this point, and in his second at-bat of the inning, Brown sent one back up the middle to score both Raddish and pinch-runner Tristan Boone. Graffius came back up and drew his second walk of the inning, this one bringing in Alvaro. A ground-out by Jake Vincent still scored Brown, and a strikeout mercifully ended the inning with nine Bees coming in to score, four of them scoring via bases-loaded walks.
“Our guys understand that we need quality at-bats,” Price said. “And that doesn’t necessarily mean getting a hit. We took advantage of the situation, they struggled a little bit finding the plate, and we took advantage with some walks, some hit-by-pitches, got some timely hits. Our guys had 25 quality at-bats today. Did a good job finding the barrel on some of these, and we did well enough to win.”
The Mountaineers went down in-order in the top of the third, with Tingler notching one strike-out. The Bees got another run in the bottom of the inning, with Raddish drilling a gapper into right-center to bring in Austin Vincent.
Three straight strike-outs would end the top of the fourth quickly, and end Tingler’s day on the mound. Another run came across for the Bees in the bottom of the frame, as Hershberger ran from first to home on an Austin Vincent screamer down the third base-line.
Carter Brown took the mound for the start of the fifth inning, and struck out the first batter he saw in three pitches. Liberty’s Jacob Fahey notched a double with a hard-hit ball down the third base-line, and he advanced to third on a groundout. Fahey got home on a wild pitch, before Brown got the last out by fielding a ground ball himself.
Up 11-2 in the bottom of the fifth, East needed just one run to get the win via mercy rule. A hit-by-pitch, a single to left, and a walk would load the bases, and Kaynan Coleman came up to bat, pinch-hitting for Graffius. Coleman walked in five pitches, bringing in Alvaro and closing the books on East’s first outing of the season.
“I think a lot of it with all our guys — we had some butterflies the first game out, and as soon as we get comfortable in there, the better off we are and our guys know that,” Price said. “Tingler did a nice job today, and then Browning came in, threw a few strikes, and did a nice job as well.”
Clay Herschberger: 2-3, BB, RBI,
Austin Vincent: 1-1 2B, HBP(2), BB, RBI(2), SB
Daniel Raddish: 2-4 2B, RBI(2),
Conner Tingler: 0-2, BB(2), RBI
Joey Alvaro: 1-2, HBP(2), RBI,
Carter Brown: 3-3, HBP, RBI(2),
Brayden Swecker: 1-2 2B, BB(2)
Conner Graffius: 0-1, BB(2), RBI,
Kaynan Coleman: PH 0-0, BB, RBI
Reach Nick Henthorn at 304-367-2548, on Twitter @nfhenthorn_135 or by email at nhenthorn@timeswv.com.
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