Published: May 07, 2008 11:35 pm         

Beckley battles back

Baseball legend Casey Stengel once quipped, “It ain’t over ’till it’s over.”

For Woodrow Wilson Wednesday, nothing could be more true as the Flying Eagles rallied for nine runs in the seventh inning to defeat Nicholas County 15-14 in the Class AAA Region 3, Section 1 tournament at Flying Eagle Field.

“We’ve got some good ball players that showed some heart right there,” Woodrow coach Mark Daniel said. “We did it last year against Nitro and this is the same team. We went through a little adversity this year but we got a few breaks and a few hits. We were a little bit more patient at the plate in the last inning.”

Woodrow sent 14 batters to the plate in the decisive frame in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Eagles’ first two batters, Johnny Williams and Tyler Bonnett, hit back-to-back doubles to center field and Kevin Starkey and Lanny Meadows followed with consecutive singles. Starkey’s poke to center finished Grizzlies reliever Tim Legg’s night on the mound and brought in closer Cody Boggs.

Boggs, though, was shaky at best. After giving up the hit to Meadows, Boggs walked Jimmy Earp to load the bases before David Allen lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Starkey with the third run of the inning. Ryan Stafford swatted a double to score Meadows and Earp and Woodrow began to gain momentum.

Boggs settled down to strike out L.G. Shea but Steven Frey scratched out an infield hit and Williams, in his second at-bat of the inning, reached when the shortstop bobbled the fielding chance to keep the inning alive and allow Stafford to score.

That was all Woodrow needed.

Boggs walked the next two batters and hit Meadows to force two runs across and tie the game. Boggs then took Earp to a full count before walking in the winning run.

“They’ll bounce back,” Grizzlies coach Gene Morris said. “It’s a loss. If you get beat, you get beat. It’s the same emotional swing they had (Tuesday). They gave up a couple of runs late and we won. It was just one of those things where things seemed to fall for them and we helped things along by walking some people. They got on a roll and they were hard to stop. That’s the way it works.”

The win by the Eagles ties the series at 1-1 with the deciding game scheduled for 6 p.m. today at Nicholas County High School in Summersville.

The game swung back and forth several times with Woodrow taking an early 4-1 advantage. Nicholas County found their bats though, and took an 11-6 lead into the seventh inning. The Grizzlies added three runs in the top of the seventh but it wasn’t enough.

In all, Woodrow pounded out 17 hits, including six doubles.

Meadows and Allen had three hits and knocked in three runs apiece for the Eagles.

Bryan Hughes led the Grizzlies with three hits, including two doubles, and three RBIs.



Woodrow 15, Nicholas Co. 14

NC: 101 621 3 — 14 13 2

WW: 130 110 9 — 15 17 3

NC: Bryan Hughes, Tim Legg (6), Cody Boggs (7) and Shawn Stewart, WW: Hunter Cline, Ryan Stafford (4), L.G. Shea (5) and Lanny Meadows. WP — Shea. LP — Boggs. Hitting — NC: Hughes 3-5 (2 2b, 3rbi), Tyler Clevenger (rbi, 2 runs), Stewart 2-4 (3rbi), Cody Smith 2-4 (2 runs), Legg (2 runs), Jacob Dix (run), Boggs (rbi, run), Chris Phillips 1-2 (2b, run), Josh Dalton (rbi, run), Andy Roberts (2b, rbi, 2 runs), Jordan Ramsey 2-4 (2rbi, 2 runs), WW: Meadows 3-4 (2b, 3rbi, 3 runs), Jimmy Earp 2-3 (2b, 2rbi, 3 runs), David Allen 3-4 (2b, 3rbi), Shea 2-4, Johnny Williams 2-5 (2b, run), Stafford (2b, 3rbi, run), Steven Frey (run), Corey Martin (run), Tyler Bonnett 1-1 (2b, rbi, run), Andy Wicklline (run), Cline 1-1, Jesse Earp (run), Kevin Starkey 1-1 (rbi, 2 runs).

Records: NC: 16-8, WW: 9-18.