The Coffee Trojans won their third game in a row Tuesday afternoon, beating the Northside-Warner Robins Eagles 11-6 in Warner Robins. The Trojans now have a 3-2 region record and are 7-8 overall.
Coffee made a statement early on, scoring five runs in the first inning. Ben Fussell led off the game with a single. Jimmy Timothy followed with a single to right. An errant throw allowed Fussell to score and moved Timothy to second. Michael Strickland flied out to right but Timothy tagged and went to third. Connor Stewart reached on the third single of the inning, scoring Timothy in the process. Another fly out moved Stewart to third. He scored Coffee’s third run on a single by Eli Wood. Brax Carson finished the rally with a two-run home run off a 2-0 pitch to give the Trojans a 5-0 advantage after half an inning.
In the third, Coffee added two more runs. Carson was at first after a walk and Reid Harden, who was running for pitcher Gavin McElroy, was at third with one out and Will Walker at the plate. Carson stole second and Harden took off for home. He scored and Carson moved to third on the play. Walker bunted, scoring Carson for the Trojans’ seventh run of the game. After two and a half innings, Coffee had a 7-2 lead.
The Eagles, who had scored two in the bottom of the first, added a single run in the third, fourth, and fifth innings to narrow the Trojans’ advantage to 7-5. In the top of the sixth, Harden, the second batter of the inning, was hit by a pitch. Fussell followed with a single and both runners took an extra base on the throw in from right. With one out and runners at second and third, Timothy walked to load the bases. Strickland stepped into the box next and singled to left, driving in Harden and Fussell. Stewart hit a grounder to third, forcing Timothy out at third for the second out of the inning. McElroy kept the inning alive with a walk to load the bases. Then Wood hit a grounder to first that was mishandled. The error allowed Strickland and Stewart to score, giving Coffee a much more comfortable 11-5 lead. Northside scored in the bottom of the inning for the final run of the game for both teams. The Trojans escaped Warner Robins with an 11-6 win and a 3-2 region record.
Fussell and Strickland each had two hits for Coffee. Carson homered for the first time this season, drove in two, and scored two. Stewart, Fussell, and Harden also scored twice.
McElroy took the win with a five-inning performance. He gave up five runs (two earned) on six hits. He struck out five and walked two.
Northside comes to town Friday afternoon for a double-header at Charles Wilson Field Friday night. Game one begins at 4:30 p.m.