Herbert and the Eagles Move One Step Closer to the Title

photo by CJ Carithers

Waleska, GA - Reinhardt Baseball put everything together in game one of the AAC series with Bluefield at Ken White Field on Friday afternoon.  The game was pushed forward to a noon start to avoid potential bad weather later in the day and the Eagles made the most of it. Their ace pitcher, Andrew Herbert, was on the mound controlling the game from start to finish and the bats perked up from being asleep earlier in the week versus Middle Georgia. Six of the nine batters for the Eagles had multi-hit games as they had 17 total hits in the game.  Five of those hits could not be held inside of Ken White. Reinhardt went on to win the game convincingly, 11-1, in the run-ruled shortened game.

Andrew Herbert has been consistent since returning to the team in late February and shows why he was selected as an NAIA All-American last year.  He is doing even better this year pushing for the top pitcher in the AAC and arguably - the NAIA. In today's game, Herbert stuck out 7 Ram batters and only allowed five hits. He gave up just one run which has his era at an outstanding 1.72.

He was able to pitch the entire stretch of the run-shortened seven-inning game. Bluefield was able to get runners on base a few times, but nothing threatening and the bats heated up giving Herbert plenty of room to get comfortable and pitch a terrific game.

Reinhardt (GA)Pitchers

Offensively, the Eagles got their bats going in the bottom of the fourth inning and kept the runs coming the rest of the way.  Vargas and Nash Crowell got the party started for the Eagles going back-to-back with homers in the fourth, but the Eagles were not through. Lance Dockery answered them later on in the fourth inning with a bomb to left field putting the Eagles up 5-0 going into the fifth inning.

The Eagles just about duplicated the fourth inning in the bottom of the sixth as Vargas hit his second homer of the game followed by Crowell who slammed one off the leftfield wall. Vargas' home run brought in Dylan Lewis who was already on base. Earlier in the inning Lewis singled to left field which brought in Jacob Profit and Dockery.

In the bottom of the seventh, Dockery would get his next chance to shine and he did just that by putting another over the leftfield wall. It was a solo shot that got the Eagles one run closer to ending the game in an incredible 2 hour period.  The game ended on a one-pitch Tucker Zdunich single to right-center which scored Profit who was on second base.

It was a good showing for the Eagles coming off the midweek loss where the Eagles did not show a lot of life.  This game was the exact opposite and you could see the fire coming back into the team as the rattled off run after run. It is what a #8 team in the country should look like.

Games two and three will be on Saturday starting at noon again.  The games are very important for the Eagles so they can keep their top spot going into the final regular season week of the season. The regular season title is right in front of them and the Eagles have total control of their destiny.