Telegraph Staff Writer
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, Quinten Rawls scored on a wild pitch, giving the Union County High School baseball team an 8-7 win over visiting Oak Hall on April 4.
The Tigers (7-6) trailed 7-6 entering the seventh. Jake Walker drew a one-out walk. One out later, Eli Rimes was hit by a pitch. Jay Cohen then hit a single into right to score courtesy runner Devin Diggs to tie the score.
Oak Hall went three up and three down against pitcher Luke Johns in the top of the eighth. The Tigers then led off the bottom of the inning with three straight singles by Blake Agner, Trevor Holtzendorf and Johns. Walker fouled off the first two pitches he saw and then took a ball before Rawls, who entered to run for Agner, scored on a wild pitch.
The game got off to an explosive start. After Oak Hall scored three runs in the top of the first, Union plated five in the bottom of the inning. Agner drove in two runs on a single, while Ayden Elixson drove in two on a double. Agner scored the inning’s fifth run on a steal of home.
Bryson Huggins, a courtesy runner for Rimes, who walked, scored a run on a Cohen ground ball in the second, putting the Tigers ahead 6-3.
Oak Hall scored a run on an error in the third before scoring three runs in a fourth inning that consisted of two errors, a walk, a hit batter and just one hit (a single).
The Eagles had only one baserunner the rest of the way. Johns, who pitched the final five innings, gave up two runs on two hits and no walks, striking out nine. He struck out six of the 13 batters he faced in the final four innings.
Agner and Elixson went 3 for 4 and 3 for 5, respectively, while Johns went 2 for 3.
Union entered the game off a 9-5 loss to visiting Oakleaf on March 30.
Oakleaf scored the first seven runs, including four on a grand slam in the third.
The Tigers, after scoring a run in the fourth, made it a two-run game with a four-run fifth. Agner and Rimes each drove in a run in the fifth, which also consisted of two runs scoring on an error.
Union was unable to put any runners on base in the final two innings.
Agner finished with two RBI overall, but the Tigers managed only four hits as a team.
The Tigers travel to play Dixie County on Thursday, April 7, at 7 p.m. They then host Keystone Heights on Tuesday, April 12, at 7 p.m.
