GREENFIELD — Nine seniors.
Nine runs.
Shortly after Greenfield-Central’s nine Class of 2021 baseball players were recognized at Molinder Field’s home plate area before Friday’s game against Connersville, they were right back for a curtain call, sans escorts.
With one senior out with an injury, eight Class of 2021 players were in the Cougars starting lineup. All reached base in their first at-bat and all scored in a nine-run first inning that boosted G-C to a 16-10 victory.
Greenfield-Central improved to 11-5. Connersville dropped to 11-7.
Nine players came to the plate without an out being recorded. Senior catcher Gavin Atwood had a three-run home run and a two-run single. Seniors Nick Grandstaff and Jacob Riegle each had RBI-singles. Senior Brandon Jenkins drove in a run with a bases loaded walk.
The aforementioned seniors along with Carson Gibson, Kalob Martin, Lance McKee, Ronnie Roberts and Parker Stanley were acknowledged before Friday’s first pitch. Only Stanley, who was out with an injury, was not part of the lineup card turned in by head coach Mark Vail.
“It was fun to see them hit the ball early and often,” Vail said. “We got some runs on the board and got some more later to win it.”
The Cougars had six first-inning hits. Three batters reached on walks, another was hit by a pitch and there was one Spartans error.
“It was one to remember,” Atwood said of the Senior Night win. “It felt good to put up that big of a number in the first inning.”
You would think the first-inning bombardment would be enough, but the remaining innings were far from a formality.
Connersville shut down the Greenfield-Central bats, while getting a run here and a run there in attempt to crash the Cougars senior party.
The Spartans had scored two prior to the G-C first-inning explosion and added one each in the second and third innings before making it real interesting with a four-run fourth inning, cutting the Cougars comfort to 9-8.
Greenfield-Central had more left in its offensive tank, following Connersville’s four-run fourth with a seven-run rally in the bottom half of the inning.
Oddly, the Cougars only scored in two innings, while Connersville had at least one-run in its first four at-bats.
“It was good that they jumped back in and got the lead back up,” Vail said. “We used a variety of pitchers, which we would have done any way today with four games next week. We had some kids that hadn’t been on the mound in a while.
“I was pleased we got them on the mound. They got back in the groove a little bit and we scored runs when we needed to. It was good.”
In the fourth, Greenfield-Central scored seven runs on four hits. It got help with four Connersville errors. Martin had two singles in the inning, the latter knocked in two runs. Grindstaff and Jenkins duplicated first-inning at-bats with an RBI-single and RBI-walk, respectively.
“It was nice to have that bounce back inning after they got their eighth run,” Atwood said. “It gave us a lot of confidence going into the end of the game.”
A.J. Oden had an RBI on a fielder’s choice and Jaden McGee was hit by pitch with the bases loaded.
Jenkins got the start on the mound and Gibson threw the final inning to finish it. The Cougars also used junior McGee and sophomore Jaden Markus.
G-C’s eight seniors combined for 11 of the team’s 12 hits, 13 runs scored and 12 RBI.
“It’s a great group of kids. I’ve enjoyed them. It was fun to see them all play together and come out with a win,” Vail said.
