Eagles stay unbeaten in CCC baseball title chase

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on April 11, 2014 1:48 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

After losing to Princeton in a one-run, 10-inning affair, Wayne Christian had little time to dwell on the what-could-have-beens Thursday evening.

Ten minutes later, the Eagles took the field for another game that meant more toward their overall goal. They quickly cast aside the tough loss and handed Carolina Christian 1-A Conference foe Community Christian a 13-3, mercy-rule defeat.

Wayne Christian (6-3 overall, 4-0 CCC) spent nearly seven hours on the field. But as the evening wore on, the Eagles' focus grew stronger. Ted Suggs said encouragement from the dugout increased the team's focus and led to a its offensive outburst.

"Everybody in here just started talking each other up," Suggs said. "Earlier we were kind of down a little bit and we realized things don't work as well that way."

In the second inning, the Eagles scored seven runs on five hits, including a two-run inside-the-park home run from Suggs. Community Christian's right fielder appeared to lose the deep fly ball in the lights and it dropped a few feet shy of the fence.

Suggs sprinted for extra bases.

"I was expecting a double maybe a triple from it," Suggs said. "But I just kept running and it took them a little while to get it in so I just went for home."

Extra bases proved pivotal for Wayne Christian. The Eagles' aggressiveness led to six stolen bases and they also took advantage of six wild pitches.

Community Christian also struggled to hit cut-off men in certain situations.

"We tell them to always play super aggressive, we're always looking to take the extra base at any time," Hinton said.

Austin Howell stole three bases and was the offensive catalyst from the lead-off spot. But his biggest contribution came on the mound.

Howell got the win as the starter in 2 1/3 innings. He gave up no earned runs and stuck out seven batters. Tanner Rose finished the game in relief.