Blue Eagles Go Down Swinging
Web Posted July 7, 2010
Cameron Aiken

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Morganton Aggies (17-14) defeated the Spartanburg Blue Eagles (18-14) 6-2 Wednesday night in Morganton North Carolina.

The combination of three Morganton pitchers struck out 16 Blue Eagles in route to the 6-2 victory with starting pitcher Corey Rhoney leading the way with 9 K’s in 5 and 2/3 innings.

Rhoney allowed two runs and three hits in his six appearance of the summer while only walking one Blue Eagle on the day.

His success could be attributed to working with an early lead as the Aggies scored four runs on four hits in the first inning off Blue Eagle starter Taylor Johnson. (Furman)

Johnson was coming off his best performance of the summer when he held Asheville to two runs on four hits through six innings last Wednesday. However, tonight was a different story as Johnson allowed all four first inning runs through 1/3 of an inning pitched.

“I just didn’t have my stuff,” said Johnson after the game. “I’m not going to make any excuses, I just didn’t have it.”

Head Coach Ryan Thomas had to look to someone in his bullpen to keep the game close and he looked no further than lefty Kelly Wright. (Presbyterian) Wright came in and held the Aggie lineup to two runs, only one earned, and four hits through 6 and 2/3 innings of work.

However, the Blue Eagle bats could never manufacture enough runs to come back in the game. The closest they came was in top of the eighth inning facing a 6-2 deficit when shortstop Brody Greer (USC-Upstate) led off the inning with a walk. Centerfielder Alex Dozier (USC-Upstate) then laced a ball in the leftfield gap. Seeing the ball go into the gap, Greer tried to take third from first, but Asheville left fielder Taylor Rozier fired a strike into third, gunning down the Blue Eagle shortstop as he slid. The call was questionable as it looked like Greer beat the throw as the tag was applied on his hip. The home plate umpire even had to warn a couple of Blue Eagle fans in the crowd as they too disputed the call.

Instead of having runners on second and third with no outs with the 2-3-4 positions coming to the plate, the Blue Eagles had a runner on second with one out. The three and four hitters struck out consecutively and no runs were scored in the inning.

Greer spoke about getting called out at third after the game.

“It was a close call, but I think I got under it,” said Greer. “I probably should have stayed at second, but I thought I could easily make it so I gambled.”

Two Blue Eagle runners reached in the ninth, but no damage was done as Asheville’s Brian Willis struck out two more Blue Eagles to end the game.

Coach Thomas spoke about his team’s performance and overall mindset after the game.

“We’ve dropped the first two games to this team this week, but I really think we beat ourselves in both occasions,” said Thomas. “I watched a different team than this one last week and we’ve addressed some of the issues after the game. We’ll come ready to play Friday because I know these guys are a good group of guys.”

The same two teams meet again Friday night as Blue Eagles host the Aggies in a doubleheader at 5pm with the second game beginning thirty minutes after the conclusion of the first game.