OSGOOD — South Decatur showed some fight in the final three innings of their baseball season in the Jac-Cen-Del final, but it wasn’t enough to advance past the semifinal round.
All three of the Cougars runs during the 9-3 loss came in the fifth and seventh innings, and four of their six hits came out of those two innings.
“I think the last few innings, we really came in, and it was a little bit of a gut-check moment,” South Decatur coach Eric Foga said. “They could have just laid down and said, ‘You know what, we’re done.’”
The Eagles were the first to get on the board with three runs in the third inning on an RBI-single followed by another two-run single. South Decatur (4-16) was in scoring position with a runner on third at the bottom of the third, but was unable to capitalize.
Jac-Cen-Del pushed the lead to five after scoring two more runs on a groundout and a balk. The Cougars got a little momentum in the bottom of the fifth that started with Devon Martin getting on base with an error. He later scored a run on a Nolan Storm double, and Storm scored one on a Brogan Howard single.
Storm, who went 2 for 4, picked up his second RBI with a single in the seventh inning. Howard also finished with two hits, going 2 for 3.
“I was glad to see that they actually came out and decided to continue to play, kept battling at the plate,” Foga said. “We had the chance to get a few more runs in there at the very end, just didn’t fall the way we needed it to. I’m very proud of them for that.”
Luke Eden pitched six innings and ended with three strikeouts, while allowing seven hits and five walks. Martin pitched the final inning and allowed no hits with five walks.
