Last week was a heartbreaking week for Webster county schools on the diamond.
Almost simultaneously, the East Webster Wolverines and Eupora Eagles dropped games on Thursday night in the eighth inning. The Eagles had a tie game in the fourth inning and pitched it well beyond that but couldn’t get the one run they needed as Madison St. Joseph walked it off in the eighth inning 5-4.
Eupora had eight hits in the game with two each coming from Carter May and Cade Adkins. The latter had a game-high three RBI and a double but there wasn’t enough run production from the rest of the team in defeat.
After the Bruins took a 4-1 lead early in the game, May entered in the third and would throw 5.1 innings of two-hit ball in which he did not surrender an earned run. He had five walks and three strikeouts with just one run surrendered.
Eupora hosted game two of the series and kept it close until the seventh inning when the Bruins scored two runs in the seventh to push a one-run game out to 5-2. That would be the final and the end of the road for the Eagles.
There were just two hits total from the Eagles in the final game of the season with Knight and Jacob Collum providing those two base knocks. Chris Robinson and Reed Hale had the two runs driven in during the loss.
St. Joe had 13 hits off of Reed Hale but he limited the damage to just three earned runs with no walks. He struck out six batters.
It was a tough end to the season for Eupora as the team finished18-11 and were 6-2 in Class 2A, Region 2 with a second-place finish. The Eagles will lose the bulk of its lineup and pitching as Knight, Adkins, May, Hale, Drew Tabb, Kimble Dillinger, Collum and Tyjuan Hughes are all finishing up their high school careers.
The Eagles do have some talented players returning too, though. Tabb Powell will return for his junior season with a .292 batting average this season with 14 hits and 13 RBI. Ty Murphy had a huge sophomore year with a.361 season with 26 hits, 18 RBI, three doubles and two RBI.
Chris Robinson was arguably one of Eupora’s best pitchers as a sophomore this year with 12 appearances and a 1.84 ERA. He threw 19.0innings, gave up just five earned runs, walked 19 and walked seven.
