Courtesy of The Grenada Star
The Kirk Raiders were looking to gain some momentum heading into Spring Break. They opened the 2010 baseball season splitting their first six games. Thursday, they hosted Carroll Academy in a doubleheader at Raider Field. The games were scheduled late during a week that originally had no games planned. Kirk used timely hitting and some solid pitching to sweep the twinbill. They opened with a 9-0 win and followed that holding off Carroll 7-3 in the nightcap. With the wins, Kirk improves to 5-3 on the season. “It was a pair of big wins for us,” coach Taylor Fleming said. “We pitched it well and had some big hits.”
Game 1: The story of the opener was the dominating performance of senior pitcher Luke Morman. He finished with a two-hit shutout striking out 16 batters. “I thought Luke just dominated the game,” Fleming said. “He was able to stay ahead of hitters all night.” Kirk jumped to a 1-0 lead with a run in the first. Will Thimmes tripled and scored on a wild pitch after one out. In the second, KA would add another run. Caleb Cummings singled and scored on a single from Jake Poe to make it 2-0. The Raiders made it 4-0 with two runs in the third inning. Thimmes walked, stole second, and scored on Morman’s double. Colin Boone’s ground ball plated the second run in the frame. Kirk added two runs in the fifth and three in the sixth to account for the final margin of victory. The Raiders finished with nine hits. Morman, Thimmes, and Cummings all had two hits. Morman also had a triple.
Game 2: In the nightcap, Kirk scored four runs in the first and never looked back. Carroll had several chances, but Thimmes worked his way out of jams to get the win. “Will battled all night and was able to work his way out of some problems,” Fleming said. Thimmes allowed four hits and had six strikeouts. Boone led the offense with a double and a homerun driving in four runs.
