On Saturday morning the Independence baseball squad traveled to the Ballantyne area for a non-conference game against the Ardrey Kell Knights.

The game was originally scheduled for a 1:00 pm start time, but due to the weather forecast, school officials moved the start time to 11:00 am.

Indy took an early lead in the top of the second inning.  Noah Howie led off the inning with a hard hit line drive to the Knights’ first baseman.  CJ Brown stepped to the plate and drew a walk.  After stealing second base, Raja Milton moved CJ over to third with a single to left field.  Raja attempted to steal second and got caught in a run down.  While the Knights were trying to tag Raja out, CJ Brown scored from third.  As for the rundown, Raja saw an opening and started back to first base and as he approached the base,  he lowered his body to dive into the base.  The Knights’ first baseman grabbed him around the body, but Raja fought his way through the tackle and was safe at first as the Patriots took a 1-0 lead.

In bottom of the fourth inning the Knights’ lead off hitter reached on an error.  After stealing second, the runner advanced to third on a sacrifice.  Ardrey Kell’s next batter hit a single to center scoring the base runner to tie the score 1-1.

Neither team could score any more runs and at the end of regulation play the score was tied 1-1 so the game went into extra innings.

In the top of the eighth inning the Patriots went down in order.  In the bottom half of the inning, the Knights’ lead off hitter singled to left field and stole second.  The next hitter popped out to Indy’s catcher Noah Howie for the first out.  With a runner on second and one out,  Ardrey Kell singled to right center scoring the runner from second and walked off with a 2-1 non-conference win over the Patriots.

Independence   0  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  –  1

Ardrey Kell        0  0  0  1  0  0  0  1  –  2