Evans claims win by 1
Greenbrier broke Evans' nose Friday night with a straight jab. (See story be-low.)
Evans pitcher Zack Baker winds up during his team's 5-4 win over Lakeside on Saturday night.
Photo by Jonathan Heeter
A day later, Lakeside seemed poised to connect with the knockout haymaker to the Knights. But Evans sidestepped the punch and the Panthers stumbled to the mat and couldn't get up.
It wasn't pretty, but Evans (5-2, 1-1) avoided losing to a county rival for the second time in as many nights, escaping with a 5-4 home win over Lakeside.
For the second straight night, Evans watched a lead evaporate in late innings. The Knights held a 3-0 lead in the sixth inning when Lakeside, which stranded seven runners, rallied for four runs and a 4-3 advantage.
Lakeside couldn't hold on, though, as Sean Harrell walked four consecutive batters including two with the bases loaded to give Evans the 5-4 victory.
"You hate to lose a game like that," said Lakeside coach Jay Matthews. "If you're going to lose, you'd like for the over-team to beat you."
Harrell's seventh inning overshadowed a strong performance by the senior pitcher who came in to relieve an Carl Burrow in the second inning.
After giving up a three-run triple by Shawn Ward - two of those runners were inherited from Burrow - Harrell gave up only one more hit the rest of the game. His RBI-triple in the seventh also gave Lakeside the 4-3 lead it carried into the last inning.
"He pitched an amazing game," said Evans coach Ricky Beale. "He came in and really shut us down."
In the seventh inning, Evans' Kyle Wilkerson reached second base with one out after Craig Smith couldn't come up with a long fly ball. Matthews elected to intentionally walk Ward, who represented the winning run. Harrell walked Ken Raborn to load the bases and then Ryan Pressley and Kevin Millward to end the game.
"We go into every game saying there is one guy who we can't let hurt us," Matthews said. "When you play Evans, it's Shawn Ward. He was the winning run but what if we turn the double play? Then the coach is a genius. We end up losing and I've got a thousand people calling me an idiot. We just didn't want the bat in his hands."