The Independence Patriots’ baseball team had a three game home stand last week. In Monday’s opening game against the Vance Cougars Indy came away with a 15-5 victory over the visiting Cougars.
The Cougars jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the the first inning scoring four runs on two hits and three walks. However, the Patriots came fighting back scoring five runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning.
Lead off batter Nate Brown got things going for the Patriots reaching on a single. Jabari Moore followed with a double to right field scoring Brown. With Moore on second designated hitter Cooper Fandel doubled to the right field wall scoring Moore. Trailing 4-2 with Fandel on second, Noah Haislip tripled to right center scoring Fandel cutting the score to one 4-3. Dylan Giorgio came to the plate and hit a sacrifice fly to right field scoring Haislip to tie the score 4-4. Matthew Mangum drew a walk, stole second base and then stole third base. With Mangum on third, Joey Granger reached on a hard grounder back to the pitcher scoring Mangum and Indy went up 5-4.
Indy’s Noah Howie attempts to tag out a Vance runner at home.
Vance went three up and three down in the top of the second.
In the bottom of the second Indy scored five runs on five hits and two errors. With the bases loaded and no outs Indy’s Ryan Mangum and Nate Brown scored on passed balls leaving Jabari Moore on third base. Cooper Fandel’s hard line drive to center scored Moore and Fandel picked up his second RBI. Fandel was forced out at second leaving Noah Haislip on first.
Matthew Mangum reached on a error by Vance’s third baseman. The ball went into the outfield scoring Haislip. Joey Grainger was up next for the Patriots and got on board on a throwing error scoring Mangum. Indy was up 10-4 after two full innings.
After Vance’s three up and three down in the top of the third, Indy went on another scoring spree.
Ryan Mangum led off with a walk followed by Nate Brown’s single. With two on, Chase Rappe hit a hard hit grounder between first and second that caused fielding problems for the Cougars. Before getting Rappe at first, Mangum scored and Brown moved to third. Cooper Fandel came to the plate and hit a long sacrifice fly to left center scoring Brown and picking up his third RBI. Noah Haislip picked up a walk and scored on Dylan Giorgio’s double. With Giorgio on second, Matthews Mangum hit a shot to the wall in right center scoring Haislip. Mangum tried to stretch it to a triple was gunned down at third ending the inning with Indy in the lead 14-4.
The score remained 14-4 going into the top of the fifth inning.
Vance’s Telly Feaster got things started when he was awarded first base after being hit by a pitch. Feaster got the green light and stole second and advanced to third on Jirod Carr’s long fly ball to right field. With two outs and Carr on third, Caleb Collins drove Carr in on a single to the outfield to make the score 14-5 heading into the bottom half of the fifth inning.
Chris Castellucci led off for the Patriots with a single and later advanced to second on a passed ball. Noah Haislip’s single moved Castellucci to third with no outs. Dylan Giorgio came to the plate and hit a long fly ball to right center. Castellucci tagged up and came home for Indy’s 15th run ending the game 15-5.
