Osbourn not ready to relinquish baseball title

By DAN CLENDANIEL For the News & Messenger
Published: March 28, 2008

Forgive the Osbourn Eagles if they do not relinquish last year’s Cedar Run District champion-ship without a fight.

With just three returning starters and no one in the same position from last year’s district win-ners, the Eagles were expected to be retooling this year, especially against emerging Cedar Run District power Battlefield.

But in an early-season match-up between last year’s champs and this year’s preseason choice, the Eagles thumped the Bobcats, 10-4.

“Coach (Keith Howell) has been telling us that we are the district champions until someone knocks us off,” said winning pitcher Cory Turner.

Turner improved to 2-0 despite struggling with his control. The junior right-hander went four innings, walking six batters and hitting three more.

Such a performance would be a disaster for most pitchers, except that Turner gave up only one hit and two runs.

Plus, the Eagle teammates had handed him a 9-2 lead by the time he switched positions with shortstop Travis Lehman .

“It was cold and windy but I can’t say the weather was a factor,” said Turner, who had pitched just one inning in high school prior to this season. “The early runs were a big help.“

Turner also gave up just one hit in his previous start in a holiday tournament in North Carolina.

“He’s an athlete,” said Howell, whose team is now 4-0 overall. “He’s a competitor and he has the right approach on the mound.”

Osbourn belted 10 base hits but also benefited from five Bobcat errors that led to six unearned runs.

“We can’t play defense right now,” said Battlefield manager Matt Caudle. “We made too many stupid mistakes. It also happened all during our (tournament) trip to Florida.“

The stands behind home plate were filled with pro scouts holding speed guns when Battlefield starter Evan Scott took the mound.

Scott, who has signed with James Madison, struck out four but gave up eight hits in just over two innings of work. Korbin Doss relieved in the third and gave one run over the final four innings.

Osbourn scored twice in the first inning on hits by Devin Snow and Lehman. The Eagles then broke the game open with four more runs in the second inning.

Lehman got the big hit of the inning with a two-run, two-out single to right field that scored Snow and Ben Garlick.

Battlefield got three straight doubles from Scott, Julian Joseph and Joey El-Bisi in the seventh for two runs before Lehman struck out the last three Bobcat batters to end the game.

Battlefield also hurt itself with base-running mistakes that accounted for three outs. In the fifth inning, Doss appeared to score a run on a sacrifice fly to right, but the runner on third base left early and was called out on an appeal play.

“We’ve told the guys that we’ve built the program up over the last four or five years that we still expect them to win this season,” said Howell. “To come out and play this well against a good team should be a confidence-builder.”