Eagles Let Two Leads Slip in Loss to Taylor

David Finney | photo by Angel Cornista

Waleska, GA - Day Two of the SouthEast Rumble was a day full of baseball at both LakePoint Sports Complex in Cartersville and at Ken White Baseball Field on the campus of Reinhardt. Three games at each location and the Eagles would have the final game at Ken White Field for the day. It would be a game of ups and downs for Reinhardt as they would take the lead twice in the game only to give it up each time. It would be the fourth and seventh innings that would cost the Eagles the game.

Andrew Herbert got the starting job for this one against the Trojans who traveled from Indiana for The Rumble. Despite giving up one run in the first and two in the second, Herbert had a pretty good night on the mound. He struck out 4 batters and gave up 9 hits over his four innings of work. It would be the fourth inning when Herbert and the Eagles allowed Taylor back in the game. After starting the fourth inning with two flyouts, Reinhardt had a costly error that allowed a runner to reach base and load the bases instead of getting the final out of the inning. With the bases loaded, Taylor got the highlight of the night when they got a grand slam in the top of the fourth.

The Eagles bats were hot to start as they batted through the lineup and put five runs up in the bottom of the first inning. Jacob Profit led off with a double to right field and soon after scored after Patrick Baggett singled to left. Baggett worked his away around to third on back-to-back walks to Dawson Johns and Tucker Zdunich. A passed ball pitch scored Baggett and advanced the runners. Jarrett Burney would get a single to right which scored Johns. Burney stole second and a bad throw allowed him to reach third and Johns scored on the play. Jet Kern would sacrifice bunt to get Burney across the plate.  It was a great start for the Eagles as they would take the lead 5-1 after the first inning. 

After losing the lead in the fourth, the Eagles would gain it back temporarily in the bottom of the fifth scoring four runs. Lance Dockery would score Dawson Johns on a single to left, Jet Kern would single to third base to score Zdunich,  Dockery would score on a sacrifice fly, and Jacob Profit would score Burney on a double to center field. It was a huge inning for the Eagles as they would get four runs and retake the lead from the Trojans, 9-8.

After a scoreless sixth inning for both teams, Taylor would have another big inning against Reinardt scoring three runs and taking back the lead. The Trojans would add one more in the top of the eighth making the lead 12-9. The Eagles would not get a run after the comeback inning in the fifth even though they did have chances with men on base.

This is a game that you hope the Eagles use to learn from and can get to where they shut down teams after having a lead.  Coach Burton added this about tonight's game, "You can't be in the counts we are in right now on the mound and beat good teams. Taylor is well-coached and plays very hard. We were beaten by the better team tonight. Quick turnaround against one of the nation's best tomorrow, I hope we are easy to meet this challenge."

Reinhardt does have a fast turnaround as they play the first game of The Rumble tomorrow at Ken White Field. It should be another nice day of baseball as the Eagles will play at 11 am against St. Thomas who have won three games so far in the tourney. Look for the Eagles to rebound from this loss and play better baseball Saturday morning.