GREENFIELD — Mark Vail wanted to see a few things on opening night from his Greenfield-Central baseball team.
On Wednesday, his Cougars came through on most of them at Molinder Field.
The Greenfield-Central pitching staff limited the visiting Frankton Eagles to eight hits with a combined 18 strikeouts thrown, while the Cougars’ bats posted eight hits and capitalized on eight errors to win 10-6.
“It’s great to get the win. I’m just glad to be back after a year off,” Greenfield-Central sophomore A.J. Oden said. “It’s exciting.”
Oden provided the momentum and the tying run for the Cougars in the bottom of the third with Frankton leading 4-2.
Finishing 1-for-3, Oden dropped a two-out, two-run double down the right-field line, just fair, to tie the game 4-4 as Greenfield-Central produced a five-run frame to pull in front 7-4.
The Cougars opened the inning with two quick outs, but a fielder’s choice throwing error on a grounder by Gavin Atwood gave Greenfield-Central an opening.
The Eagles committed three errors in the inning after three combined in the first and second. The throwing error put Atwood on base, and Kalob Martin followed with a single. A second throwing error put Joey Roland on base to load them for Oden.
“There were three guys on, so I had to get that hit to put us up,” Oden said. “It was pretty important.”
Roland later scored on a wild pitch, and Oden crossed home plate on a double steal before Lance Mckee turned his first left-handed at-bat of the season into an RBI single.
“He’s battling some shoulder issues, but he did a nice job for never hitting left-handed, really before this season,” Vail said. “I was pleased with how we were at the plate tonight. We weren’t over eager, we were patient, which is real good to see.”
Mckee, who started the game swinging right, was 1-for-3 with two RBI. He drove in his second run with a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the fourth to cap a three-run charge by Greenfield-Central.
Oden’s third RBI unfolded on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice, fielding error in the bottom of the fourth to score Atwood, who was 2-for-3 at the plate.
“We talked about that after the game, how important it is to put the ball in play. He didn’t hit it real hard, but he put it in play with runners on base, and good things happened,” Vail said.
Atwood drove in the Cougars’ first run of the season with an RBI double that brought home Grant Shepherd from second base in the bottom of the first. Atwood had two doubles with his second going into deep center field in the bottom of the fifth.
Martin was 2-for-4 for the Cougars with a pair of singles, and Roland was 1-for-1 with two runs scored and a walk.
“It was the first time out, didn’t get on the field much (this preseason), and we got a lot of kids on the mound, which was our goal today,” Vail said. “I thought we did well at the plate. I thought we were patient and swung at good pitches.”
The Eagles had little to work with at the plate against five Cougars pitchers.
Parker Stanley started the game and went 2.0 innings with six strikeouts, two hits allowed, one earned run and no walks.
The only earned run went to Frankton’s Ryan Smith, who took the ball over the right-field wall with the wind in the top of the second to make it 2-0 Eagles.
Frankton’s first run in the top of the first scored on one of Greenfield-Central’s three errors. RBI singles by Ethan Friend and Evan Webb in the top of the third put Frankton up 4-2.
RBI hits by Sam Hartley and Sam Dalton scored a pair of runs in the top of the seventh before Cougars’ senior pitcher Brandon Jenkins ended the game with a strikeout.
Connor Sims followed up Stanley on the mound, going 2.0 innings with seven strikeouts, a walk and two hits allowed. Jacob Riegle, Andrew Zellers and Jenkins each threw an inning in succession with five strikeouts total.
Riegle had two punch outs and Jenkins with two. Of Frankton’s six runs, only three were earned.
“Overall, I was pleased, but we need to throw more strikes on the mound,” Vail said. “Otherwise, for the first time out, on a cold night, we did OK.”
