By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

First-year head coach Brian Day and his West Union Dragons baseball squad took the diamond for the first time on Saturday, March 29, hosting the Western Latham Indians in doubleheader action. Day replaces long-time head coach Joe Kramer and his first outing as the head man turned out to be successful, at least halfway.

In game one of the twinbill, the Dragons roared to a 9-0 lead and then had to hang on for dear life and hold off a furious Western comeback to take a 10-9 victory, only to see the visiting Indians win a 14-12 slugfest in game two.

In the first game, the Dragons came out on fire, racking up four runs in the bottom of the first, then added one in the bottom of the second and four more in the third, before the Indians began to come from behind with a six-run fourth. West Union got what proved to be the winning run in the bottom half of the fourth when Tyren Pennington walked and eventually scored on a Western error. The Indians put up three runs in the top of the seventh but Dragons’ reliever Jase Morgan got the final out on a strikeout with the tying and go-ahead runs on base.

The West Union offense banged out 11 hits in the win, paced by a 3 for 4 night by leadoff hitter Colton Adams. Morgan and Jacob Day each contributed two hits to the West Union attack with Morgan picking up the win with 3 1/3 innings of relief.

Game two turned out to be a battle of the two offenses as the two teams combined for 23 hits and 26 runs in the Western victory. The Dragons led 10-9 after four innings but the Indians struck for a five-spot in the top of the fifth and the Dragons could not overcome that deficit.

Morgan was big at the plate in game two, going 3 for 4 and driving across five runs, while Day had a couple of base knocks and scored four times.

The 1-1 Dragons were slated to begin Southern Hills Athletic Conference play on Tuesday, April 1 with a road trip to Ripley and weather permitting, will be back at home on Wednesday to host the Piketon Redstreaks. On Thursday, West Union will travel to Manchester for a conference battle and a busy week at the mercy of Mother Nature continues on Friday with a trip to New Boston and a Saturday doubleheader at East Clinton.

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Western Latham

000 600 3 —9

West Union

414 100 x —10

Western Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Kerns 4-1-0-0, Brewster 2-2-0-0, Satterfield 4-2-3-0, Henderson 4-1-2-1, Grooms 4-0-2-3, Ware 3-0-1-0, Hawk 3-1-0-0, Pritchard 3-1-1-0, Blackburn 1-0-0-0, Humphrey 2-1-1-1, Team 30-9-10-5

Extra-Base Hits: Pritchard 2B, Satterfield 2B

W. Union Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Adams 4-2-3-0, Byron 4-2-1-0, Day 3-2-2-2, Morgan 4-0-2-0, Fooce 4-1-1-1, Pennington 2-1-0-0, Dryden 0-1-0-0, Barnet 2-1-1-1, Davis 1-0-0-0, Ferguson 2-0-0-0, Kelton 1-0-1-0, Gage 1-0-0-0, Team 29-10-11-4

Extra-Base Hits: Day 2B, Morgan 2B

Western Pitching:

Brewster- 0.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 25 pitches

Satterfield- 2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 45 pitches

Grooms (L)- 3.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 91 pitches

W. Union Pitching:

Byron- 3.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 66 pitches

Morgan (W)- 3.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, 72 pitches

Fooce- 0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 17 pitches

Davis- 0.1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 13 pitches