Defensive mistakes critical for Eagles

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on April 13, 2012 1:48 PM

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Wayne Christian's afternoon defensively was one to forget.

The Eagles' day at the plate wasn't much better.

Wayne Christian committed eight errors and tallied just two hits in an 8-0 loss to Greenfield on Thursday afternoon in game one of the Charger Diamond Classic at Wayne Country Day.

Eagles' starting pitcher Chase Darden took a no-hitter into the fourth inning before Ahmed Hosson reached on an infield single. Ty Batts followed with a walk and back-to-back Wayne Christian errors allowed a pair of runs to score as the Knights grabbed a 2-0 lead.

Chase Whitehead led off the top of the fifth inning with a single and scored on Parker Lucas' RBI single as the lead grew to 3-0. Greenfield broke the game open with four runs in the top of the sixth inning. Tristan Kosich scored on an Eagles' error and Robbie Stokely provided a two-run single. Lucas added an RBI groundout to push the margin to 7-0.

"The standard plays, we weren't making them," Wayne Christian head coach Curt Hinton said. "That hurt us. We have to not let a one-run inning not become a four-run inning and that's what we did. We have to tighten it up."

The Eagles struggled offensively all afternoon against the physically imposing Stokely. The tall right-hander routinely worked up in the strike zone and Wayne Christian had difficulty adjusting. Stokely pitched a complete game allowing just two hits with nine strikeouts and five walks to earn the win.

Chase Darden collected the Eagles' only two hits. Darden was thrown out at second base trying to stretch a single into a double in the bottom of the first inning. Darden doubled to right field in his final at-bat in the sixth inning.

"If we don't hit the ball better than that we're not going to win ballgames," Hinton said. "A lot of it is plate discipline. We swung at so many pitches up in the zone. We have to wait to wait for the ball to drop over the plate."

Tas Pittman's sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh inning capped the Knights' scoring.

Darden endured the loss on the mound, surrendering seven runs (three earned) on five hits with seven strikeouts and three walks. Wayne Christian (9-3 overall) concludes play in the Charger Diamond Classic today against Wayne Country Day.