Last night’s region contest between county rivals HoCo & Northside was relatively close throughout most of the game until the Bears pulled away late to defeat the Eagles at the Eagles’ Diamond 12-4 to start 1-0 in region play. HoCo scored the game’s first run with a Drew Burress sac rbi to lead 1-0 & Elijah Smith pushed the lead to 2-0 with an rbi double.
Northside got on the board with a Gabe Turner rbi double to cut the Bears lead down to 2-1 in the bottom of the first & after holding HoCo scoreless in the top of the second, the Eagles tied the game with a walk & later took a 3-2 lead by way of a Rhett Adams sac rbi. Northside pushed their lead to 4-2 with a Landon Cancera sac bunt that resulted in a double play but the fourth run scored before the third out was recorded.
The Bears were in a spot that they have not been in a long time & that is trailing to the Eagles in a baseball game. HoCo’s offense got going in the top half of the fourth when Eli Stephens grounded into fielder’s choice that ran in Ryker Chavis to cut the gap to 4-3 Northside. Andrew Dunford tied the game at 4 with a sac fly to center that ran in Ethan Buffone.
Kai Decker who was the starting pitcher for the Bears last night put HoCo out front for good with a 2 rbi single that ran in Christian Wahiwe & Drew Burress to give the Bears a 6-4 lead after 3 1/2 innings of play. HoCo increased the lead to 7-4 in the top of the sixth by way of a Kai Decker sac fly that ran in Christian Wahiwe.
The top half of the seventh is where the Bears pulled away from Northside starting with Eli Stephens running in two runs on an error to push the lead to 9-4 in favor of the visitors. Drew Burress hit a 2 run homer that looked to have been foul but was ruled a home run by the umpire to put HoCo further out front 11-4. Andrew Dunford tallied the Bears’ final run with a solo home run to left field to give the Bears a 12-4 lead.
HoCo finished the game off to pick up the 12-4 victory over the Eagles. The Bears improved to 10-1 overall; 1-0 in region play while Northside fell to 2-8 overall; 0-1 in region play. Eli Stephens & Kai Decker had three rbis for HoCo while Rhett Adams, Gabe Turner, & Landon Cancera each had an rbi for the Eagles.
These two teams will meet again tomorrow at HoCo in a doubleheader slated for 4:30 & 7pm which got moved up 24 hours due to the threat of rain that is forecasted for Friday.
