EATON — Eaton’s baseball and softball teams are at the top of the Southwestern Buckeye League West Division standings after the first week of league play.
The baseball team got dominant pitching and timely hitting in recording a pair of shutouts of Monroe and Madison.
The Eagles beat Monroe 5-0 on Monday, April 4, then blanked the Mohawks 8-0 on Thursday to to improve to 2-0 in the SWBL West.
In the win over Monroe, junior Brady Rice allowed just three hits and struck out 14 batters in six innings of work. Reid Tinstman pitched an inning in relief to close out the game.
Eaton scored twice in the third and added three more in the fifth.
Rice went 1-for-3 and drove in a pair of runs.
Brady Davis, Brock Ebright and Christian Reyna each had a hit.
In the win over Madison, a game played in cold and wet conditions, it took the Eagles offense a while to get going.
Eaton scored twice in the first before tacking on two in the fourth and four more in the fifth.
Theo Winings went 3-for-3 with a triple, two RBIs and scored three times. Rice added two hits, including a double and drove in two runs and Tinstman added two hits.
Junior Carson Brower limited the Mohawks to just one hit over five innings while striking out nine to earn the win.
Tinstman tossed the final two innings, striking out three and not allowing a hit.
The Eagles are now 5-1 overall and have three key league games scheduled this week.
The will host Franklin on Tuesday and will visit Brookville on Thursday. On Friday, Brookville makes return visit to Eaton. The Eagles will close out the week with a trip to Kenton Ridge on Saturday.
The softball team also picked up key SWBL win as the run-ruled Monroe 17-0 in five innings, then handed the Mohawks just their second loss of the season, 4-1, on Thursday.
“After the weekend as coaches we feel like we got better, playing Arcanum made us better. Of course we are never happy to drop two games however it was more experience that our girls needed,” coach Maggie Neanen said. “So we took on the challenge to get even better (Monday). We struggled with some errors in our first four games, (Monday) we didn’t make any and we made the routine plays that we needed to do to support our pitchers. Sam (Witte) and Sarah (Abner) threw very well, they trusted their pitches and they let their defense work behind them.”
It didn’t take the Eagles long to gain control as they scored four runs in the first inning. The added eight more in the second and four more in the third.
“At the plate we were much more aggressive than we have been in the first few games, it was nice to see us change our mindset,” Neanen said. “We have been working hard in practice on changing our mindsets, it was nice to see it pay off.”
Abbie Bryant was 4-for-5 with three RBIs. Allison Mowen was 1-for-2 with three walks, a home run and drove in four. Bailey Jerdon added two hit and an RBI. Olivia Baumann had two hits and scored three runs, while Macy Wright was 3-for-4 with four RBIs, two runs scored and a double.
Against Madison, Witte tossed her first-ever 7-inning complete game to earn the win. The junior allowed seven hits while striking out three.
Madison jumped out to a 1-0 in the bottom of the first. The Mohawks only had two other runners reach second base the rest of the game.
Eaton tied the game with run in the fourth then got a two-hit singles from Wright to drive in a pair of runs in the sixth to take a 3-1 lead. The Eagles added another run in the in the seventh.
Mowen went 3-for-4 with a double, while Baumann added two hits, an RBI and scored twice. Wright was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.
Bryant, Emma Gebhart, Jerdon and Anna Kramer each added a hit.
Eaton (3-3, 2-0) also has three key league games scheduled for this week.
They are to host Franklin on Tuesday and will meet Brookville (away) on Wednesday (home) and Friday.
The Eagles wrap up the week hosting Talawanda for a doubleheader on Saturday.
