GREENBRIER, VILONIA SPLIT DOUBLEHEADER TUESDAY

GREENBRIER — Tuesday’s regular season matchup between Greenbrier and Vilonia gave both Panther and Eagles fans something to cheer about. Underneath the bright sun in Greenbrier, the Panthers’ (12-4, 5-3 5A West) offense dominated Vilonia (9-8, 6-2 5A West) in game one until the later innings, but it would be the Eagles who captured game two. Greenbrier took game one 8-4 and Vilonia took game two 6-1. Game One — Greenbrier 8, Vilonia 4 Vilonia junior right-hander Cade McWilliams struggled early, allowing two first-inning runs on two hits. Greenbrier’s Cayden Wallace and Connor Flagg started off the game with a pair of infield singles to the left side of the infield with Flagg bunting Wallace to second. The runners advanced one bag when Dalton Linn bunted them over, but he was thrown out by McWilliams at first base, leading to the first out of the inning. Zane Golden lined out to the third baseman and Larry Flake drew a two-out walk before Wallace and Flagg scored on a throwing error by McWilliams. Trase Adamson line out to the right fielder to end the inning, but damage had been done as the Panthers led 2-0. McWilliams pitched a clean second inning, but wouldn’t get through the third as he ran into trouble again as Greenbrier plated three runs. Flagg and Linn led off the inning with a pair of singles and would come around to score when McWilliams threw the ball away to first for the second time of the game and Golden reached on the error. A wild pitch allowed him to advance to second before Flake crushed an RBI double to right field, giving the Panthers a 5-0 lead. Vilonia began getting outs, eventually getting Flake out on a force at home and Hunter McDearmond flew out to left. However, after walking Talon Moore, McWilliams’ day was done, which led to Drew Killough coming in for relief. He struck out the final batter of the inning before running into trouble in the next two innings. In the fourth, Wallace led off the inning with a triple to deep right field. He scored on a fielder’s choice that attempted to get him out, but the attempt failed as he beat the throw home. That would be the only run that scored that inning, but Greenbrier added its final two runs in the fifth when Wallace was once again a thorn in the Eagles’ side as he singled through the middle. Flagg followed with a walk and the two were successful on a double steal before Line hit a two-RBI single down the left field line, taking an 8-0 lead. Vilonia didn’t go quietly as they plated four runs in the sixth and seventh innings, but the damage had been done as the Eagles fell in the first half of the doubleheader 8-4. Isaac Hulse picked up the win for Greenbrier, throwing six innings, striking out six, walking two and giving up two runs on five hits. Game Two — Vilonia 6, Greenbrier 1 Game two was a much different story as the Vilonia pitching dominated in the night cap. The Panthers bats couldn’t catch up to the Eagles’ Josh Albat’s pitches as Greenbrier could only muster one hit. Albat struck out 12 batters, walked two and gave up one run on one hit. The Vilonia bats seemingly matched Albat’s pitching, scoring six runs across the seven inning game. Both offenses were quiet in the first two innings before the Eagles exploded for four runs in the third inning. Vilonia’s Jayden Liszewski doubled to lead off the second before Reed Sadler singled him home. Sadler came around to score when Albat helped his own cause by doubling down the left field line, making the score 2-0. Albat scored when Kyle Vines singled, and then Vines scored on an error by the Greenbrier second baseman. The Panthers got a run back in the fifth when Flake led off the inning with a walk. He advanced to third after Adamson walked and Brady Jerry was hit by a pitch. Vilonia scored another run when Luke Berry came around to score after drawing a leadoff walk, advancing on a bunt and then scoring on the error, making the score 5-1. The Eagles plated their final run of the day in the top of the seventh when Killough drew a walk and came around to score on a Berry singles to right field. Both teams return to action on the road for their next games. Greenbrier travels Thursday to Benton, while Vilonia heads Friday to Searcy.

GREENBRIER, VILONIA SPLIT DOUBLEHEADER TUESDAY

ANDY ROBERTSON

Log Cabin Democrat | 4/10/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Greenbrier Athletics