Game Winning hit by Devin Runkle
Clarksville, TN – Northeast Eagle Devin Runkle hit a walk off RBI in the bottom of the seventh inning to seal his team’s come from behind win over the Tullahoma Wildcats 4-3.
Runkle had gone 0-for-3 with two walks and a pop fly before coming to bat with one out and one runner on second and his team tied 3-3 with the Wildcats. He was facing Wildcat pitcher, Dixon, who had taken the mound in the fifth and shut down the Eagles, three up and three down, in the sixth.
Runkle waited for his pitch and then hit a high fly ball into right field that curved in the wind toward the foul pole at the end of the first base line. Everyone at the field watched, mesmerized until the ball finally dropped to the groundThe ball clipped the first base line and was called fair, finishing the comeback orchestrated by the Eagles.
The Eagles had opened their second game of the day in the William Workman Classic baseball tournament falling behind 2-0 in the first inning. Held at bay for three innings by Wildcats’ starting pitcher Tyler Burns, the eagles did not get their first hit and score until the bottom of the fourth.
They plated two more runs in the fifth to tie the game and Runkle did the rest in the seventh.
Evan Frawley, picked up the win. He relieved Canaan Tucker in the middle of the third inning and held the Wildcats scoreless from three hit’s in the last 4 2/3 innings.
No Eagle made more than one hit in the game. Runkle was one of four Eagles with an RBI in the game.
The Wildcats took control of the game from the beginning and kept it firmly for three innings. While the Eagles struggled, they scored three runs from five hits.
Burns had struck out the first two Eagles batters in the bottom of the fourth, when Luke Veltri hit a high pop fly that was missed by a Wildcat outfielder. Veltri made it to second on the error and was then driven in by Kyle Primasing for the Eagles first score of the game.
The Eagles did not get many runners in play, but they took full advantage of them when they did after the third inning. In the fourth, Frawley led off with a single and later scored on a sac grounder.
Ben Wilford brought in the game-tieing run with a line drive to the gap in right/center for an RBI single.
The win over the Wildcats was the Eagles second win of the day in the William Workman Classic Baseball Tournament. Next they will play Christian County at home 5:00pm Friday, April 11th.
Box Score
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
Tullahoma Wildcats | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 2 |
Northeast Eagles | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 3 |