VINEMONT, Ala. – Good Hope hit the road Tuesday night for a county battle at Vinemont and the Raiders returned home with a nice win over the Eagles. Good Hope plated four runs in the second to take an early lead and added runs over the next few innings on its way to a 10-6 win.
Eagles starter Ayden Thomason worked his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the first to keep the Raiders off the board and in the bottom half of the first, Good Hope’s Caden Drake needed just four pitches to collect three outs and take us to the second. Blake Cordes drew a leadoff walk to start the top of the second and a double off the bat of Brady Stripling gave the Raiders runners at second and third. Dakota Overton drew a walk to load the bases and Carter Naramore was hit by a pitch to push Cordes across the plate and make it 1-0. Three pitches later, Drake punched a 2-run single into left field to give Good Hope a 3-0 lead and Walker Kilpatrick was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded later in the inning to make it a 4-0 game going into the bottom of the second.
Colten Whatley hit a ground ball to first in the top of the third, allowing Ayden Black to score from third and add to the Raider lead. Mason Drake scored on a passed ball a few pitches later and Good Hope took a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the third. Chayce Sandlin led off the inning with a double into left field and Joshua Rhodes drew a walk to give the Eagles runners at first and second. A sacrifice bunt by Hayden Robinson moved the runners over and Michael Foust trimmed the lead to 6-1 with an RBI single.
After a scoreless fourth inning, RBI singles from Jake Hale and Thomason cut Good Hope’s lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the fifth but the Raiders responded in the top half of the sixth. Eli Clements knocked a double into center field and Russ Wooten brought him home to score with an RBI single. Dawson Kicker drilled another double into center field to put two runners in scoring position and Wooten scored on a fielder’s choice later in the inning to make it an 8-3 game. Good Hope added to its lead in the top of the seventh when Clements ripped a 2-run single into right field to put the Raiders ahead 10-3 but they still had to hold off a late push from Vinemont.
Hale led off the bottom of the seventh with a single up the middle and an error allowed Thomason to reach first and give the Eagles a pair of base runners. Rylan McRae shot one up back up the middle to plate a pair of runs to cut the lead to 10-5 and Jaxon Holcomb kept the momentum going with another double just a few pitches later. A sacrifice fly off the bat of Sandlin allowed McRae to score from third and make it a 10-6 game but Vinemont was unable to chip away any more than that and Good Hope held on to collect a 10-6 road win.
Caden Drake earned the win on the mound after tossing 5.1 innings, allowing three runs on six hits and striking out five batters. At the plate, Whatley (one RBI) and Black (one RBI) each finished with a pair of hits and Drake (one hit) and Clements (one hit) each posted a pair of RBIs.
Hale (one RBI) finished with three hits in the loss and Thomason (one RBI) added two hits. McRae (two RBIs), Foust (one RBI) and Sandlin (one RBI) each posted a hit as well.
Good Hope will be back on the road Thursday for another county matchup at Holly Pond and Vinemont will also be on the road facing J.B. Pennington.
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