Basham, Independence halts Beavers baseball unbeaten streak
May 12—COAL CITY — The Bluefield baseball team hasn't committed many errors so far this season. On Tuesday night at Independence, a couple early defensive miscues proved costly.
Helped by two errors in the bottom of the first frame, Independence scored two unearned runs and went on to claim a 4-1 win over the hitherto-unbeaten Beavers.
"It's pretty tough. It's good that we have a game to bounce back tomorrow," said Bluefield head coach Jimmy Redmond, whose team had won 12 straight headed into Tuesday's game at Coal City.
Both runs in the first inning scored gratis a sacrifice fly to right rapped by Indy starting pitcher Clay Basham. The Pats added runs in the third and fifth frames, but thanks to Basham's performance on the hill, his first inning RBIs would have been enough to carry the day.
Basham (2-1) went the distance, striking out eight over seven innings and walking four. He allowed one earned run off three hits.
Deeb (5-1) arguably pitched well enough to win against a quality opponent. Over seven innings he struck out nine and walked three, allowing four hits. Of the four runs Independence scored against him, only one was earned.
Atticus Goodson, Carson Brown, Basham and Caleb Daniels each recorded singles for Indy.
Gavin Lail, who scored in the fifth inning on a Fuller single, reached on a single for the Beavers. Bryson Redmond had Bluefield's other hit.
"We only had three hits. I think we need to go back and have a better plan at the plate. It seems like we chased a lot of bad pitches tonight," said Coach Redmond. "[Basham] threw pretty hard and he had a good curve ball. But we just chased a lot tonight, I thought."
Bluefield plays county rival Princeton at home tonight.
Independence 4, Bluefield 1
Bluefield..............000 010 0 — 1 3 2
Independence.....201 010 x — 4 4 1
Carson Deeb and Bryson Redmond. Clay Basham and C. Daniels. W— Basham, 2-1. L— Deeb, 5-1.
