Posted by
Jason Anderegg
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Sun, Apr 6, 2008
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Baseball
]
Mayfield, KY – The weekend that looked like it was not going to happen, turned out to be a great weekend for the Lambuth Eagles. The Eagles took two games from the Cougars of Mid-Continent and moved back into a tight race for the top spot in the TranSouth Conference. The weekend also saw a rarity in the baseball profession as Brent Ebinger threw his first career no-hitter. It was a very special moment in the middle of a great season for Brent and for the Eagles.
The day started off very slow for the Eagles as the first game stayed knotted at zero for the first couple of innings. In the third inning both Lambuth and Mid-Continent would score runs on balks. Tony Perez who started for the Eagles was called for a balk with runners on second and third and that would prove to be the last run that the Cougars would score all day. Perez shut them down the rest of the day going the complete game giving up only two hits and striking out twelve. The Lambuth offense took over from there and took the lead in the fourth with a Bryan Willsey solo home run. The Eagles jumped right back on the board in the fifth when Mike Davis hit a one out single and Ryan Concannon followed with a two-run home run. Later in the inning the Eagles would tack on a run and would add another in the seventh to win game one of the doubleheader 6-1. Ryan Hanson led the offense in game one going 3-4 with a run scored while Matt Bird, Chris Siljendahl and Ryan Concannon each added two hits.
The top of the first inning in game number two saw Mike Davis hit his seventh home run of the year with Ben White on base to give Lambuth a 2-0 lead. That would be plenty as Brent Ebinger put on the most dominating pitching performance seen in an Eagle uniform in a long time. In seven innings pitched one Mid-Continent hitter reached base only to be erased on a double play one batter later started by Ebinger. Ebinger struck out six, recorded six outs by groundouts and nine by pop out. The closest that any hitter came to breaking up the no-hitter was in the bottom of the sixth when left fielder Ryan Concannon had to make a sliding catch to end the inning. Bryan Willsey would hit his second home run of the day and sixth of the season in the fourth to make the score 4-0 and the Eagles would add single runs in the fifth and sixth to win the game 6-0.
Ebinger threw 64 pitches, which is almost nine pitches an inning, for his sixth complete game of the season and team leading eighth victory of the season. According to Brent, this was his first ever no-hitter even going back to little league.
The Eagles will travel to Nashville, TN on Tuesday to take on Division I opponent Belmont University. The game is slated to start at 6:00 pm and will be played at Greer Stadium, home of the Triple A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers, Nashville Sounds. Lambuth will return to TranSouth Conference play on Friday when they host the Crichton Comets of Memphis, TN at 2:00 PM. Hope to see you all at the ballpark!!!