While the rest of the city worried about an ensuing storm, Andover Central High School hosted Goddard Eisenhower. Well the Jaguars hosted, but due to the condition of Eisenhower’s field, they were the visitors.
Playing as the visitors on their own field for the first time, the Jaguars beat the home team 18-10 in a poor showing of defense.
Through seven innings, both teams combined to make sixteen errors. Both starters didn’t make it out of the third inning. It was simply just one of those games.
Sophomore Sam Hersch started the game for Eisenhower. The sophomore did not look bad, although he was working behind in the count for the majority of his outing. His pitch count for the first two and two thirds of the game were, 23, 24, and 27 pitches respectively. Shaky defense forced Hersch to throw more pitches than needed.
In the first inning, he allowed seven batters to come to the plate, walking one and allowing three singles. After the top of the first inning Eisenhower would be down 2-0, but that did not keep them down. In the bottom half of the inning Eisenhower would respond by sending their own seven batters to the dish.
It looked like the Jaguars starter, senior Kory Olney, was going to have a quick 1-2-3 inning after striking out the first batter and the second but the error bug struck again.
After stiking out the second batter, the Jaguars catcher dropped the third strike, allowing him to reach first base. Two singles and another past ball put Eisenhower up 3-2.
The teams would continue to battle back and forth throughout the remainder of the game. The Jaguars would score a few runs, then Eisenhower would respond.
Eisenhower would make two errors, then Andover would kick the ball around. In the fourth inning Andover Central scored four runs on three hits and three errors.
This made the score 8-3 and the Jaguars would never look back. In the sixth, Andover would pad their lead, sending nine batters up in the inning, scoring six runs on five hits and two errors.
Whether it was playing on the same field as a different team, or whether it was the
weather, either team cannot afford to continue to play at this level.
