Eagles finish off sweep of Orioles
May 10—It wasn't quite the marathon game from the night before, but Zionsville locked in with another back-and-forth battle with Avon on Thursday night.
And one night after winning a 3-2, 14-inning game, the Eagles again dug deep in game two of the series, scoring five times with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to come away with a 10-6 win.
"The guys battled and I am really proud of them," Zionsville head coach Jered Moore said. "The last two days, they were back and forth the whole time or close games and they continued to battle — especially in that sixth inning."
Zionsville trailed 6-5 entering the inning, and quickly found themselves with two outs after two pop outs.
Josh Girvan singled to keep the inning alive, and after a Tyler Hughes walk, Riley Agbonhese hit a 2-run single to make it 7-6.
Lincoln Belser walked before Jackson Tielker and Nolan Osterling hit back-to-back triples that made it 10-6.
"The thing that stood out was that we had two outs with no one on," Moore said. "We've had a quite a few big innings this year that have started with two outs. Once we got rolling, the next guys just kept it going."
It was the complete opposite game of Wednesday, which was 1-1 after 11 innings.
Thursday, Avon scored three times in the top of the first, before Zionsville scored twice in the first and third.
After each team scored in the fourth, the Orioles took advantage of three walks to take a 6-5 lead.
Moore said both games are the type of games that you can expect to see in the post-season.
"Going into the end of the season here, we really are just making sure we are ready for the tournament," Moore said. "Being able to come out on top in games like this, I like where we are at right now."
Girvan finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored, while Belser, Tielker, and Osterling all had two hits.
Braden Shaw got the win, pitching two scoreless innings in relief, striking out four.
The schedule continues to be packed for the Eagles, as they host Guerin Catholic on Friday, then have four games in four days to start next week.
"We are still trying to figure out a few things, but the guys are working hard and competing," Moore said. "It will be good for our hitters to see a lot of different arms and it will be good for our pitchers too."
Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.
