Peebles senior Bradley Shoemaker delivers a pitch to the plate during action from the Indians’ district quarterfinal contest at Eastern Brown on May 22. (Photo by Mark Carpenter) to the plate
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
After struggling through a tough regular season, the Peebles Indians baseball squad looked to turn things around in the postseason as they opened Division VI district tournament play on May 22 with a familiar foe, a trip across county lines to face the Eastern Brown Warriors. The Indians came into the contest as the #11 seed with the Warriors at #6, plus Eastern holding two regular season victories over the Indians.
Though for once it wasn’t raining, it was a chilly and windy day in Macon as the two teams began their tourney play, with a match up of right handers, Peebles’ Bradley Shoemaker and Eastern’s Pryce Murphy. One bad inning would haunt Shoemaker while Murphy pitched a complete game gem and the Warriors advanced with a 5-1 victory.
The Indians didn’t get too many scoring threats against Murphy, but in the top of the first Brandon Rayburn singled and eventually made it to third but was left stranded there. Neither team dented the scoreboard until the Warriors came to bat in the bottom half of the third. The home team took advantage of some wildness from Shoemaker and added a couple of timely hits to drive Shoemaker from the hill and plate four runs and take a lead they would never relinquish.
As Murphy continued to put goose eggs on the Peebles side of the scoreboard, the Warriors added one run in the bottom of the fifth off of Peebles reliever Bo Johnson to extend their lead to five runs.
The Indians finally broke up the shutout in the top of the seventh when the speedy Rayburn tripled down the left field line and scored on an RBI ground out off the bat of Garrett Shiveley. That was all they could muster off of Murphy as the Eastern senior righty extended his team’s season for at least another game with the 5-1 triumph that sent them to the district semifinals on May 30 where they will face the #3 seeded Waterford Wildcats.
Murphy went all seven innings for the win, allowing just four hits, striking out 12 Peebles hitters and issuing zero walks. Eastern (11-7) got a pair of base hits from senior catcher Drew Edmistenand a pair of RBI’s from junior Braxton Vance. Shoemaker took the loss, lasting just 2 2/3 innings, walking six and allowing just two hits and four earned runs.
Peebles sends their 2025 season with a 5-13 overall record and will bid farewell to seniors Nathaniel Cummings, Brandon Rayburn, Garrett Shiveley and Bradley Shoemaker. Rayburn lade the squad with a sparkling .388 batting average and stole 19 bases. Shiveley hit .304 and swiped 12 bases. On the mound, Rayburn had a 3-1 record with a 5.25 earned run average.
Peebles
000 000 1—1
Eastern Brown
004 01 0x —5
Peebles Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Cummings 2-0-1-0, Evans 1-0-0-0, Grooms 3-0-1-0, Johnson 3-0-0-0, Rayburn 3-1-2-0, Schmus 2-0-0-0, Schutte 3-0-0-0, Shiveley 3-0-0-1, Shoemaker 2-0-0-0, Sims 3-0-0-0, Team 25-1-4-1.
Extra-Base Hits: Rayburn 3B
E. Brown Hitting (AB-R-H-RBI): Dotson 3-0-0-0, Edmisten 2-1-2-1, Florence 1-0-0-0, Litzinger 3-0-0-0, McCarthy 2-1-0-0, Murphy 2-2-1-0, Prine 2-1-0-0, Riggs 2-0-0-0, Vance 2-0-1-2, Team 19-5-4-3.
Peebles Pitching
Shoemaker (L)- 2.2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 6 BB, 2 K
Johnson- 3.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
E. Brown Pitching
Murphy (W)- 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 12 K
