MOUNTAINEER BASEBALL

Eastern Sweeps NEO and Maintains 1st place in Conference
Story by Staff – 04/12/09

The Eastern baseball team (23-16-1 / 7-1) swept a double header from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College on Saturday.  Due to wet conditions in Miami, the two teams played at Muskogee High School.  Eastern won the first game 9-5 and then won the second game 12-6.  With the two victories, the Mountaineers took three of four games from NEO and improved to 7-1 in Bi-State Conference play.

Jared Coon turned in an outstanding performance in game one.  In six innings of work, he allowed five runs (three of which were earned), allowed seven hits, walked none and struck out nine to pick up the win.  However the numbers weren’t indicative of how dominant he was on the mound.  NEO scored their first run on a home run in the 1st inning.  In the 3rd inning, Coon struck out four batters.  He struck out the first batter and then surrendered a bunt single and stolen base.  He struck out the next batter for the second out of the inning.  A single up the middle plated a run and then he struck out the next batter, but an errant throw allowed the runners to move to 2nd and 3rd base and extended the inning.  After another single, Coon ended the inning with another strike out.  NEO plated their final run on a wild pitch in the 6th inning.  Offensively, the Mountaineers battled all game and eventually took the lead for good in the final inning.  Trailing 4-0 in the 4th inning, Stephen Hagen led off with his 22nd home run of the season.  In the 5th, it was still 4-1.  Justin Klusak led off with a walk and then Brady White hit a double to center field to score Klusak.  Tommie Johnson’s bunt single was thrown away by the third baseman.  That allowed White to score and Johnson to advance to 3rd base.  Bryce Killingsworth tied the game with a RBI ground out.  NEO took the lead 5-4 in the bottom of the 6th inning, but Eastern answered right back with five runs in the 7th.  After White led off the inning with a hit by pitch, Johnson was walked.  Killingsworth bunted the runners to 2nd and 3rd.  Jeff Scardino hit a ball that was too hard to handle for NEO’s 3rd baseman and that tied the game.  Hagen doubled down the left field line to put Eastern ahead for good.  Casey McCollum extended the lead with a two out three run home run.  Scardino pitched a scoreless 7th inning to give the Mountaineers a 9-5 victory.

In the final game of the four game series, Eastern struck for three runs in the 1st inning and never looked back in defeating NEO 12-6.  They scored three runs in the 1st and 4th innings, two runs in the 6th and 7th innings and one run in the 3rd and 5th innings.  Cameron Green led the Mountaineer offense by going 3-4 with two doubles, a walk, hit by pitch, and three RBI’s.  Jeff Scardino was 3-5 with a walk, two runs scored and two stolen bases.  On the mound, Phil Parcell picked up his third win of the year in five innings of work.  Parcell allowed just four runs while striking out three.  Seth Terry, Bubba Knight and Buddy Burke came on to throw the final four frames for the Mountaineers.

Even though the Mountaineers 13 game winning streak ended during the series, they still have won 15 of their past 16 game.  With a 7-1 Bi-State Conference record, the Mountaineers hold a two game lead over Connors.  During the past 16 games, Eastern has scored double digits in all but three of those games and in those three, they have scored eight once and nine twice.  They have plated 226 runs for an average of 14 runs per game.

The Mountaineers will resume Bi-State Conference play again this Wednesday.  They will travel to Seminole State College for a 1:00 pm double header.  The two teams will finish their four game series with a double header in Wilburton on Saturday.  Saturday’s games will begin at 1:00 pm also.