Fairland sole champs

Published 12:00 am Saturday, May 3, 2008

PEDRO — The Fairland Dragons were greedy. They didn’t want anything to do with sharing the Ohio Valley Conference baseball title.

Fairland won the title outright Friday with a 12-1 win over the Rock Hill Redmen.

“We already had won a share of the league and we didn’t let down. I’m proud of our kids’ effort,” said Fairland coach Roger Snyder.

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Rock Hill coach Barry Litteral lamented his team committing six errors that led to only three earned runs.

“It was just one of those nights. They had 12 runs, but we had six errors and six walks. We helped them along,” said Litteral.

Fairland is now 14-3 overall and finishes the OVC as league champions at 9-1.

Robbie Easterling pitched a four-hitter for Fairland. He struck out 11 and walked one.

“I give a lot of credit to Easterling. He had command of every pitch and he was throwing strikes,” said Litteral. “I congratulate coach Snyder and his group. They went through the league with only one loss.”

Fairland scored

three runs — two unearned — in the first inning.

Zac Jordan doubled but the next batter grounded out and a fielder’s choice allowed Jordan to go to third.

Easterling doubled for a run, and back-to-back errors scored two runs.

The Dragons got three more runs in the fourth inning.

With two outs, Jordan was safe on error, Chris Ward singled. Easterling walked, and Adam Berry had a three-run double.

Fairland capped the scoring with six runs in the seventh inning.

Berry and Tyler Godby reached on errors, and, after a walk, an error scored a run and a hit batsman scored another run.

A walked forced home a third run, Jordan singled home two more and Easterling’s base hit drove in the final run.

Berry, whose father died two days prior to the game, went 3-for-4 with a double.

“They found his father dead, but he wanted to play and be a part of helping his team,” said Snyder.

Rock Hill (6-4, 6-3) got its only run in the sixth inning.

Mitchell Davenport single stole second, went to third on a passed ball, and Drew Kuehne followed with an RBI single.

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Rock Hill0001000=146

Robbie Easterling and Tyler Godby. David Turley, Josh Malone (7) and Seth Kuehne. W-Easterling (11-K, 1-BB). L-Turley (12-R, 3-ER, 2-K, 6-BB, 6-H). 2B-Fairland: Zac Jordan, Robbie Easterling, Adam Berry; RH: Mark DePriest. Hitting-Fairland: Zac Jordan 2-4, Chris Ward 1-5, Robbie Easterling 2-4, Adam Berry 3-4, Ethan Long 1-4; Rock Hill: Mark DePriest 1-3, Mitchell Davenport 1-3, Drew Kuehne 1-3, Josh Malone 1-3.