BREMEN – Cold Springs took advantage of Saturday's game being moved up two hours due to expected storms. That, plus some really sloppy defense by Meek, allowed the Eagles to put up a four spot in the first inning. They went on cruise control from there, taking the game, 8-2.
The Eagles struck first in their opening half-inning. Logan Rice led off the inning with a walk, then Brooks Stephenson got hit by the pitch to put runners on first and second with no outs for the pitcher, Cody Anderson, who lined a double to left field to bring home Rice to put Cold Springs on the scoreboard, then Jake Abbott hit a two-run double to left field and the lead grew to 3-0. After a line out, Samuel Rollo reached on a fielding error by the shortstop, then Abbott and Rollo advanced to third and second, respectively, on a wild pitch, and the catcher, Gabriel Jones, tried to throw Abbott out at third, but he threw it away, allowing Abbott to score, and the lead swelled to 4-0 when the inning ended.
Meek looked to get something going in the second inning. Samuel Tidwell led off the inning with a single down the left field line, but Jones popped out to Abbott at short, then doubled off Tidwell at first. Austin Bowling hit a single to left-center, then Mason Irving got hit by the pitch with two outs to give Meek a chance to get on the scoreboard, but Anderson got Bryar Gibson to ground out to second baseman Ayden Alexander on the first pitch to get out of the inning unscathed. Cold Springs added to their lead in their half. Rice led off the inning when he reached on a fielding error by the second baseman, then he moved over to second on a bad pickoff throw by the pitcher, Dillion Baker, and went to third on a groundout by Stephenson. Anderson brought home Rice with an RBI single to left field on the first pitch to increase the lead to 5-0.
Brandon Bishop reached on a fielding error by Irving with two outs in the third inning, then on the first pitch, Rice hit a single to left-center. Stephenson pushed the lead to 6-0 with an RBI single to right field. Cold Springs made it 8-0 in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI infield single by Bishop, which was helped by smart baserunning from Alexander, who scored after Bishop reached on the infield hit, and on an RBI double to deep center field by Anderson.
Meek got on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth. Kenneth Sherer reached on a one-out walk, then Tidwell reached on a throwing error by Abbott, who threw it over the head of Alexander, to put both runners in scoring position with one out, then another error by Cold Springs allowed Sherer and Tidwell to score to cut it to 8-2, but Anderson and the defense settled down after that, getting the final two outs of the inning. Anderson worked around a two-out single by Baker to pick up the win for Cold Springs, who improved to 3-15 on the season.
Anderson pitched a gem for Cold Springs, allowing just three hits and two runs, both of them unearned, walking just one, striking out four, and hitting two, and also went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a single, three RBIs and a run scored. Abbott also went 3-for-4 with two singles, a double, three RBIs and a run scored. Stephenson added a hit, an RBI and a run scored, as did Bishop. They will play next Thursday at West Point.
Baker went five innings, giving up 11 hits and eight runs, six of them earned, walking one, striking out two and hitting two. Sherer pitched a scoreless sixth, walking one and striking out one. Baker, Tidwell and Bowling had their team's only hits. Sherer and Tidwell scored both runs for the Tigers. Meek will take on Addison at home on Tuesday.
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