Micah Hill started and pitched five innings in Wednesday's loss

Missed opportunities foil Polk hopes in loss to East Henderson

Staff Reports

PS Staff

The timely hitting that East Henderson got Wednesday and Polk County did not proved the deciding factor on a windy evening at The Bottoms.

East Henderson scored four of its six runs with two outs and Polk County stranded 15 runners on base as the Eagles took a 6-3 non-conference victory.

The Eagles (3-0) did the most damage in the third inning, snapping a 1-1 tie with a three-run rally. All three runs came with two outs, the first two on an RBI double by Cooper Wilmot and a run-scoring single to right by Mason Honeycutt. An outfield error allowed Honeycutt to advance to third, and another on Landon Henderson’s fly ball allowed him to score to make it 4-1.

East upped the lead to 6-1 in the top of the sixth on inning-opening doubles by Henderson and Nolan Osteen and a two-out infield grounder.

Polk County (1-2) put together a rally in the seventh, taking advantage of a pair of walks to score two runs on Jon Edwards’ two-out single before the Eagles recorded the final out to end the threat.

Shane Parris dives safely back to first during a pickoff attempt early in Wednesday’s game

East Henderson pushed across a run in the first inning on a walk, single, call of catcher’s interference and an infield grounder. The Wolverines responded in the bottom half of the second as Shane Parris singled, moved to second on a Lawson Carter sacrifice bunt, took third on a passed ball and scored on Brad Marcello’s base hit to right. Alex Tipton followed with a double to left, but the Eagles got the final out of the inning to avoid additional damage.

That proved a common theme for the evening. Polk left the bases loaded in the sixth, two runners on base in every other inning and had a runner stranded in third in every at-bat except the seventh. Twice the Wolverines had runners on second and third with one out and failed to score.

Tipton finished 2-for-3 and Edwards 2-for-5 to lead the Polk offense, which also got hits from Micah Hill, Chan Barber, Parris and Marcello.

Hill started and took the loss, pitching five innings and striking out seven while allowing five hits and three earned runs. Tipton and Carter each pitched an inning of relief.

The two teams are set to meet again Friday at East Henderson.