King settles in, Eagles get win over 7-AA foe Rebels
♦ After allowing an early run, the Coosa starter pitches complete game as bats provide timely hits.
After a bit of an uneasy first inning, the Coosa Eagles and starting pitcher Cody King settled in nicely and put together a strong complimentary effort to earn a 4-1 region win over Fannin County on Thursday afternoon.
The Eagles (14-6, 10-3 in 7-AA) saw Fannin County send six batters to the plate in the top of the first, but King and the Coosa defense limited them to just one run, which came home on an error. And that was the final run the Rebels (11-12, 6-7) scored in the contest as the senior starter King had little trouble from that point on to earn a completegame win on the mound.
In total, King went seven innings and allowed one unearned run on five hits while striking out six. The only other semi-jam after the first came in the final inning as Fannin County put backto-back hits together to place runners at first and third with one out, but King finished things off with a fly-out and groundout to seal the win.
Coosa head coach Michael Dougherty said his team simply relied on what has made them successful previously this season, which is complimentary baseball with pitching, defense and timely hitting.
“We went back to what we’ve been doing well all year — timely hitting, solid defense and challenging the zone with our pitching,” said Dougherty. “Offensively we just kept putting runners on and giving ourselves chances, and if you do that long enough you’re going to score some runs eventually. When we put three or four runs on the board, we feel good about our chances with
the pitching we have. Cody did a great job today, and we played good defense behind him.”
After surrendering the early run to the Rebels, Coosa’s bats strung together some quality at-bats over multiple innings to tally their four runs. They scored one each in the second, third, fourth and
fifth to take the early momentum away from Fannin County.
Leading the charge at the plate for the Eagles was King and Ryan Smith, who each finished with two hits in the win. Smith had a double and an RBI, and King stole a base and scored a run.
Andrew Earwood also had a double and an RBI for Coosa, and Trent Cantrell and Pacey Smith each contributed a hit and an RBI. Rounding out the
offensive efforts were Andrew Holt with a double, Gavin East with a hit, a walk and a run scored and Ashton Williams with a walk and a stolen base.
“Right now our lineup is really long — there’s not an easy out in there,” said Dougherty. “All of our guys battle each atbat. We were behind 0-2 several times today and battled back from it for quality at-bats. They were going the other way, seeing the ball deep into the zone... just doing what we practice. As a coach, that’s really nice to see. When you you’re playing quality teams that kind of stuff makes a
big difference. You’ve got to do the small things to win.”
Fannin County’s lone player with multiple hits in the game was James Pearson. Sawyer Moreland drew two walks and scored a run, and Bryson Holloway, Hayden Danner and Landon Norton all had one hit apiece.
Chance Stacy took the loss for the Rebels after pitching five innings and allowing four runs on nine hits while striking out four. Connor Martin pitched one inning of scoreless relief and struck out one.
The Eagles and Rebels met again on Friday at Fannin County
for a doubleheader to close out the series. Coosa is back home on Monday to host Chattooga at 5 p.m. in the opener of a threegame region series.
“Right now we are worried about what we can control, and what we can control is finishing in the top two spots in the region to host a playoff series,” said Dougherty. “We can put a lot of pressure on Model for that top spot if we keep winning and take care of what we can take care off, but that 2-seed is there for us right now. These next two (against Fannin County) and next week is huge.”