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Edgerton win tightens conference race

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Edgerton vs Evansville Baseball

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EVANSVILLE — Edgerton High baseball coach Mike Gregory called a 7-4 win over Evansville here Thursday one of the biggest for the program in a number of years.

Not only did the victory pull the Crimson Tide within a half-game of the front-running Blue Devils, but it set up what should be a fantastic finish in the inaugural season of the Rock Valley North.

Adam Gregory belted a two-run homer and pitched two shutout innings to earn the save as Edgerton climbed to 10-3 in the Rock North with three games to play. The Crimson Tide can move into a first-place tie with Evansville with a win over Palmyra-Eagle this afternoon.

Evansville, which could’ve clinched at least a tie for the Rock North title, fell to 11-3 with two games to play.

“We’re playing very good baseball right now and deserve to be in the position we’re in,” Gregory said. “Our defense has been really solid, and today when we needed to make plays, we did.

“We knocked (Taylor) Koch out of the game early, and he was the best pitcher in our league coming into today. That was huge, but I was still hoping we could’ve put up more runs than we did.”

Edgerton struck quickly with two runs in the top of the first. Kyle Johnson and Riley Clifton ripped back-to-back, two-out RBI doubles to drive in both runs, but the Blue Devils responded on Andrew Keister’s triple and an RBI fielder’s choice off the bat of Derek Cashore.

Gregory’s two-run blast to right field pushed the lead to 4-1 in the second, but the Blue Devils tied the game in the third with three runs. Ryan Weaver, Tucker Johnson and Koch had RBI singles in the inning, but Edgerton starter Kyle Stearns wiggled out of any further trouble.

The Crimson Tide took the lead for good with two runs in the fourth. Gregory’s one-out double put runners at second and third, and Tyler Oren raced home on a passed ball to give Edgerton a 5-4 lead. Josh Eastman then ripped an RBI single to score Gregory.

Adam Gregory, who is Mike’s nephew, said beating Evansville is always high on the wish list.

“It always feels good to beat Evansville, no matter what sport it is,” Adam said. “But just getting a win today was important because we still have a chance to win the conference.”

The Blue Devils had a chance to cut the lead in the sixth, but the Crimson Tide turned a nifty 6-4-3 double play to get Adam Gregory out of a jam. Evansville got the tying run to the plate in the seventh, but Gregory earned the save by inducing two fly ball outs and groundout.

Evansville coach Brian Cashore, who saw his team split the two regular-season games with Edgerton, was disappointed in the Blue Devils’ lack of execution.

“They made more plays than we did,” Cashore said. “And in this conference, which I think is the toughest conference in Division 2 in the state, that’s tough to overcome.

“In a big game like this, you hope that if you get beat, you get beat because the other team played better and that you didn’t beat yourself. And I’m not sure we didn’t do that.”

EDGERTON 7, EVANSVILLE 4

Edgerton (ab-r-h-rbi)—Gregory, 3b-p, 4-2-2-2; Eastman, 2b, 4-1-1-1; Kinnett, ss, 3-1-0-0; Johnson, c-rf, 3-1-1-1; Clifton, lf, 3-0-2-1; Stearns, p-c, 4-0-1-0; Nelson, cf, 2-0-0-0; King, 1b, 2-0-0-0; Shelley, ph, 1-0-0-0; Oren, dh, 2-2-1-0; Anderson, rf, 0-0-0-0. Totals: 28-7-8-5.

Evansville (ab-r-h-rbi)—Keister, ss, 2-2-2-0; R. Weaver, dh, 4-1-1-1; Walczak, rf, 0-0-0-0; Cashore, c, 4-0-1-1; J. Weaver, 3b-p, 4-0-0-0; Crider, cr, 0-1-0-0; Johnson, 1b, 4-0-1-1; Koch, p-3b, 4-0-2-1; Deininger, 2b, 4-0-1-0; Moseley, lf, 3-0-0-0; Lunde, cf, 2-0-0-0; Krans, ph, 0-0-0-0. Totals: 31-4-8-4.

Edgerton 220 200 1—7

Evansville 103 000 0—4

E—Edgerton 3, Evansville 3. LOB—Edgerton 5, Evansville 7. DP—Edgerton 1, Evansville 1. SB—Eastman, Cashore 2. 2B—Gregory, Johnson, Clifton. 3B—Oren, Keister 2. HR—Gregory.

IP H R ER BB SO

Edgerton

Stearns (W) 5 6 4 2 1 7

Gregory (S) 2 2 0 0 1 1

Evansville

Koch 2 4 4 2 1 2

J. Weaver (L) 5 4 3 2 3 4