Indians Give Lions First Region Loss

The Stephens County Indians had lost 9 of their last 10 Region-8 games. Franklin County had moved through the Region-8 season undefeated and already claimed the region title for the third straight season.

Baseball…it’s why you play the game.

The Stephens County Indians went on the road and defeated the Franklin County Lions 5-4 in 8 innings Tuesday night in Carnesville.

It was senior night in Franklin County, but it was the Indians seniors that stepped up big early in the game when Nick Randall doubled home Colby Fowler to give the Indians an early 1-0 lead.

The score would stay that way until the 6th inning. In the top of the 6th, Ben Stowe reached on an error and scored on Randall’s 2nd RBI. William Roush then followed with a monster shot 2-run home run to give the Indians a 4-0 lead.

Randall was also outstanding on the mound carrying a no-hitter to the bottom of the 6th but ran into trouble when Dee Oliver singled and scored after an error and back-to- back walks. Duncan Beasley followed with a single and 2 RBI’s, and Tyler Welborn’s sacrifice fly tied the score at four.

After both teams went scoreless in the 7th inning the game moved to the 8th with the Indians getting three straight hits by Randall, Roush, and Garrett Pless to load the bases and set up Ethan Smith’s blooper RBI over a drawn in infield to score Randall with the go ahead run. The play was ruled a fielder’s choice when Roush was forced at 3rd base.

Grant Babbitt, who was outstanding in relief of Randall got the final three outs to secure the Indians victory.

Randall went 5 innings allowing three earned runs on two hits while striking out eight and walking four. Babbitt pitched three scoreless innings while allowing just two hits and striking out two to get the win.

Ty Peeples took the loss for Franklin County with two innings of work behind Easton Gailey who had pitched 6 innings allowing 2 earned runs and striking out 8.

The Indians outhit the Lions 9-4 with Randall leading the way with 3 hits, Roush and Pless with 2 hits each, and Stowe and Fowler each had a hit. Oliver led the Lions with 2 of their 4 hits.

Stephens County improves to 4-9 in region play and 13-13 overall. Franklin County is now 12-1 in the region and 21-6 overall.

The Indians and Lions will play again on Wednesday at Stephens County with first pitch scheduled for 5:55 P.M. and airtime 5:45 P.M. on WNEG.