By Staff
The Escambia Academy Cougars opened their 2002 baseball season Thursday afternoon at home against the Jay Royals.
The Royals took a 2 to 0 lead in the first inning and would never give it up.
E.A. coach, Heath Gibson, said that he was proud of the way his young squad kept battling back. At the end of the second inning, the score stood 2-1. The mighty Royals would score 3 in the top of the third, but E.A. answered with 3 of their own in their half of the inning to make it a 5-4 ballgame.
In the fourth, the Royals plated 4 runs and then added 2 in the top of the fifth to make the score I I to 5. Gibson's Cougars, however, did not roll over. Instead, they scored 3 in the bottom of the fifth to narrow Jay's margin to 11-8. The Royals added I run in the sixth and seventh as M. Barfield entered the game in relief to shut down the Cougars for the final 6 outs of the game. Jay took a 13-8 victory over a scrappy Cougar squad.
Jace Beasley, Bradford Price, Justin Shirley, Steven Shirley, and Josh Morgan all recorded I hit apiece. Tripp Dawson and Kevin Adair scored 2 runs each, while Jace, Steven, Michael Cannon, and Cody White crossed the plate once each for the Cougars.
The Royals were led by Barfield's 4 for 5 at the plate with 4 runs scored. T. Smith scored 3 runs with I hit. B. Morris and A. Farish had 2 hits and 2 runs apiece. Buchannon and in. Koehler added 2 hits while J. Williams had I to round out the Royals hitting. Morris and Barfield each hit one home run for Jay. The winning pitcher was J. Ellis, while E.A.'s Kevin Adair suffered the loss.
Coach Gibson said that his young group of players made a lot of mistakes.
Look for coverage of E.A. vs. Greenville softball and baseball in the Wednesday edition of The Atmore Advance. The Cougars' next game will be Tues., March 5, at Monroe Academy at 3:30 p.m.