Eagles win first game against Waggener 13-12 in extra innings

Fort Knox Baseball
The Fort Knox Eagles picked up their first victory of the season over the weekend, but the meeting with Waggener wouldn’t be decided in seven innings.
Knox baseball won a hard fought game on Saturday against the Waggener for its first win of the season.
 After falling behind 11-3, the Fort Knox Eagles used a trio of runs in the fifth and four more in the seventh inning to tie the game at 12-12 to force extra innings.
Taking the mound for the Eagles late in the game was freshman pitcher Mason Stacy shut down the visiting Wildcats throwing three strikeouts in the top of the eighth to set up the Knox batters in the bottom of the inning.
Stacy would come up big on base in the bottom of the inning by taking a walk and stealing second while Knox’s Kyle Gibson was at bat. Gibson took the third pitch given to him and rifled it right field with a line drive that enabled Stacy to round third base and beat a desperate throw to home plate with a slide to score the winning run.
Stacy’s base running in the eighth inning not only gave his team the win, but his first as a Knox pitcher.
Before Stacy’s late-game heroics, the Eagles were their own worst enemy in the field.
Stacy pitched 5 1/3 innings in relief of starter Camden Doerer, who had fallen behind after the Eagle defense committed five errors. The errors by the young fielders from Knox allowed seven of the 10 Wildcat runs to cross home plate to be unearned. Doerer’s pitching in the first two innings allowed only two runs to score.
The first two Waggener batters in the third inning grounded and popped out to the infield for two outs Doerer appeared ready to close the book on the inning. Errors at first base allowed the inning to continue and after two hits, two errors and three walks the Eagles found themselves in a 9-3 hole. Stacy took the hill in relief. After giving up a double and a single settled down and struck out the No. 5 hitter from Waggener. In the next five innings, Stacy gave up two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out 13 en route to the 13-12 victory.
The Eagles were led at the plate by Stacy, Doerer and Sophomore Colton Stabler each reached base four times in five at-bats and managed to cross home seven times between them. Gibson playing center fielder helped the cause with two hits in his first start at centerfield. All nine starters reached base during the game to illustrate the team effort to for the first win of the season for the young Eagle team.
The Eagles return to action this afternoon at home against Beth Haven.

Staff photo by Seth Lamar

FORT KNOX EAGLES PICKED UP THEIR FIRST WIN of the 2013 season against Waggener Saturday. After seven innings, the Eagles and the Wildcats were tied at 12.

Staff photo by Seth Lamar

KNOX'S CAMDEN DOERER LOOKED TO STEAL THIRD BASE in a recent game. The Knox left-hander led the Eagles by going 4-of-5 at the plate against Waggener.