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Blue Devils outlast Crimson Tide in extra innings

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Edgerton vs Evansville Baseball

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EDGERTON — Evansville High School’s baseball team was forced to work overtime Thursday night.

Andrew Keister made sure his teammates were well compensated.

Keister ripped a one-out single in the top of the eighth to drive in the go-ahead run as unbeaten Evansville held on for a key 9-7 Rock Valley North Conference win over Edgerton.

Despite trailing 7-0 in the third inning, Edgerton battled back to tie the game in the seventh. Edgerton (5-2, 3-2) banged out seven doubles, but left 10 men on base.

“You can’t spot a good team like Evansville seven runs and expect to win,” Edgerton coach Mike Gregory said. “But you’ve got to give our kids credit. They battled back and got it back to even, but we just didn’t take advantage of the opportunities that we had.

“But we found out a little bit about ourselves tonight. We know we can play with any team in our conference, and we’ll see how we respond from a tough loss with a game right away tomorrow.”

Edgerton tied the game in the seventh on Keith King’s fielder’s-choice RBI grounder that scored Kyle Stearns. Kyle Johnson nearly won the game for Edgerton earlier in the inning when his double to right just missed clearing the fence for a two-run homer.

Evansville (9-0, 7-0) took the lead for good with two in the eighth. Casey Moseley walked to start the inning and scored on Keister’s third hit of the game—a double to the gap in right center. Keister scored an insurance run when Ryan Weaver stroked an RBI single to left.

The Crimson Tide got the first two batters on base in the bottom of the inning, but Jesse Deininger came on in relief of Taylor Koch and retired all three batters he faced to earn the save. Koch, despite giving up seven earned runs and seven doubles, picked up the victory.

“It (the season) is a marathon and not a short race,” Evansville coach Brian Cashore said. “There’s a long, long ways to go, but this (win) certainly gives us a little separation as far as the conference goes.

“I told the kids afterward that good teams find a way to win, and we were able to do that today.”

The Blue Devils put two runs on the board in the first, thanks to a costly Edgerton error, and added three more in the second. Evansville made it 7-0 in the third on Keister’s two-run single.

Edgerton battled back behind a slew of doubles. The Crimson Tide scored three runs in the third, aided by three doubles, to cut the deficit to four and added another run in the fifth on Josh Eastman’s sacrifice fly. Jamie Shelley’s RBI double in the sixth and Zach Nelson’s run-scoring single trimmed the lead to one.

EVANSVILLE 9, EDGERTON 7 (8)

Evansville (ab-r-h-rbi)—Keister, ss, 5-2-3-3; Weaver, dh, 5-0-2-2; Crans, lf, 0-0-0-0; Cashore, c, 4-1-0-0; Weaver, 3b, 3-1-0-1; Johnson, 1b, 5-0-2-2; Koch, p-2b, 4-0-1-0; Deininger, 2b-p, 4-1-0-0; Moseley, rf-cf, 2-3-1-0; Lunde, cf, 2-1-0-0; Granetzki, cf, 0-0-0-0; Crieder, 2b, 0-0-0-0. Totals: 34-9-9-7.

Edgerton (ab-r-h-rbi)—Kinnett, ss, 3-1-0-0; Gregory, 2b-p, 4-2-2-2; Eastman, p-2b, 3-0-1-2; Stearns, c, 4-1-1-0; Johnson, dh, 5-0-2-0; Michelson, rf, 0-0-0-0; Clifton, lf, 2-1-1-0; Shelley, 3b, 3-1-2-0; King, 1b, 4-0-0-1; Nelson, cf, 4-1-1-1. Totals: 32-7-10-6.

Evansville 232 000 02—9

Edgerton 003 012 10—7

E—Evansville 1, Edgerton 2. LOB—Evansville 8, Edgerton 10. DP—Evansville 1. SAC—Lunde, Eastman. SF—Eastman. SB—Keister. 2B—Keister, Gregory 2, Eastman, Johnson 2, Shelley 2.

IP H R ER BB SO

Evansville

Koch (W) 7 10 7 7 6 5

Deininger (S) 1 0 0 0 0 0

Edgerton

Eastman 3 6 7 3 3 1

Gregory (L) 5 3 2 2 2 6