SOMERSET: The Somerset Eagles survived
numerous defensive miscues and base running blunders on Friday to narrowly
escape with a 7-6 victory over second place Forest Hills.
Somerset’s
starting pitcher, Adam
Angermeier, turned in a stellar performance to improve his record to 4-0 on
the season. He repeatedly bailed his
defense out of jams. He struck out four
batters in his 6+ innings.
He
left the game after the first two Forest Hills batters reached in the seventh
with the Eagles leading 7-4. Drew
Shaulis came on and walked the first batter he faced before Andy Gallaher
bounced a ball to the right side that was mishandled for the Eagles’ sixth
error of the game. As Angermeier did
several times during the game, Shaulis was able to rebound and induce a fielder’s
choice groundout. The Rangers (trailing
7-6) had the tying run on third as Shaulis struck out the final two batters of
the game.
Somerset
jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead thanks to a costly fielding error by
Forest Hills. Jordan
Kaufman delivered a two-out triple to the wall in right to drive in Tyler
Uphouse and Angermeier.
Forest
Hills took advantage of some mistakes by the Eagles to score three runs in the
second and one more in the third.
Somerset trailed 4-2 as the rain began to fall.
However,
Somerset regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth. Tyler
Ferry and Uphouse both singled to start the inning. After Kaufman walked to load the bases, Andy
Harvey grounded out to first to score Uphouse. With two outs, Josh
Barron delivered a key double to left to drive in Uphouse and Kaufman.
The
Eagles added two very important insurance runs in the sixth as Shaulis and
Ferry both drew one-out walks.
Angermeier delivered a two-out single to right to drive in Shaulis. Ferry also scored on the play as the ball
got passed the Forest Hills third baseman as Ferry slid in safely ahead of the
throw. The extra run would prove to be
the margin of victory for the Eagles.
Ferry,
Uphouse, and Angermeier lead Somerset’s ten-hit performance with two hits each.
Somerset
(8-1) will travel to Central
on Monday at 4:30.