The Columbus Christian Academy baseball team just had one of the worst innings imaginable, allowing six runs to Columbus High school on just three hits with an error, a walk, a hit batter and two runners reaching base after a missed third strike.
Two of those missed third strikes came with a runner on third; not only did the batter reach first but a run scored. Throw in a walk, a hit batter and a two-run double by senior Lakendricks Bankhead, and the debacle turned a 7-3 lead against the Falcons into a 9-7 deficit.
Rams coach KC Cunningham did his best to keep the Rams’ heads in the game.
“I told them let’s just pick them back up, play our game,” he said. “It’s two more innings, six more outs they’ve got to get. We just have to make sure we use them to the best of our abilities.”
By the time the Falcons recorded another out, the Rams had pushed across eight runs, a successful safety squeeze and a two-run single in the seventh by Jackson Howard finished the scoring and the Rams limped away with a bizarre 18-9 win on Monday night at Columbus High School Sports Complex.
There were no hitting stars in the game because there just weren’t that many hits. McCory Humphreys laced two singles for the Rams, the second a soft liner into left field that scored a run during that nine-run sixth. Daniel Pate was hit by a pitch three times — in three consecutive innings — and scored twice.
Drake Shaw scored four times, and Humphreys scored three runs for CCA (1-1). But Shaw was at his best at the very end of the game.
He was on the mound during that disastrous six-run fifth for the Falcons after coming on in relief with two on and nobody out in the fourth.
“He had a tough fifth inning,” Cunningham said. “That really got him down. He came over here with his head down, and I told him just pick your head up and let’s get it with the bats.
“We got it back with the bats, and then he ended it with his arm. I’m really proud of him for that.”
The end of which Cunningham spoke was emphatic, as Shaw struck out six of the last eight batters he faced — technically, he struck out seven, but yet another missed third strike put a runner on base in the seventh — to end the marathon game.
Columbus starter Caleb Williams looked sharp at times, striking out six batters over the first four innings and showing glimpses of a mesmerizing breaking pitch. But an error here, a hit batter there and a couple of wild pitches helped the Rams score once in each of those innings.
When it was all over, the scoreboard read 18 runs on five hits with three errors for the Rams and nine runs on three hits and six errors for the Falcons. The scoreboard did not know of the seven hit batters, the nine wild pitches or the seven walks.
Cunningham put the fiasco in perspective.
“I’ve got guys who just got done with basketball about three weeks ago, and now they’re playing baseball,” said Cunningham, who also coaches the Rams’ boys basketball team. “We’ve got a lot of stuff to work on. I’m glad we won, but at the same time we had a lot of mental breakdowns, a lot of stuff we shouldn’t be doing, but it’s only our second game of the season.
“We’ll get there.”
Heritage 10, Oak Hill 7: Jake Ketchum drove in three runs, Cole Ketchum went 2 for 2 with two walks, three steals and two runs scored, and the Patriots drew 10 walks in a win over the Raiders in Columbus.
Jacob Humbers went 2 for 4 and scored three times for Heritage, which snapped a 5-5 tie with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Only four of the Patriots’ 10 runs were earned.
Cameron Dill, Jake Glusencamp and Garrett Edwards each went 3 for 4 for the Raiders, who outhit the Patriots 11-6. Dill and Edwards also doubled for Oak Hill.
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