Hawks defeat Leopards, 10-2, in rivalry matchup

Liberty-Eylau's Nate Moore bats as his teammates watch from the dugout during the Leopards' game against Pleasant Grove on Tuesday evening in Texarkana. The Hawks won, 10-2.
Liberty-Eylau's Nate Moore bats as his teammates watch from the dugout during the Leopards' game against Pleasant Grove on Tuesday evening in Texarkana. The Hawks won, 10-2.

TEXARKANA, Texas - Pleasant Grove cranked out 15 hits en route to a 10-2 victory over cross-town rival Liberty-Eylau in a District 15-4A baseball game on Tuesday at Hawk Field.

"Overall, I think it was our best team game of the year," Pleasant Grove head coach Riley Fincher said. "The offense sung the bats really well, our pitchers did really well, our defense played well and everyone in the dugout was in the game. It has been a long time coming to see our guys play together over all seven innings."

Hawk (16-5, 6-2) starting pitcher Blake Jennings earned the win, tossed six innings, allowed two runs on three hits, walked five and struck out two. Jennings threw five scoreless innings over the six that he pitched.

"Blake continues to get stronger each time he steps out on the mound," Fincher said. "His confidence continues to increase. He competed his tail off, he filled up the strike zone and it was a great performance by Blake."

Leopard (15-5-2, 7-1) starting pitcher Gage Bellatti absorbed the loss, gave up seven runs on 11 hits, walked two and struck

out four.

"They just outplayed us tonight, and Blake Jennings did a great job," Liberty-Eylau head coach Zach Fowler said. "We didn't do a good job of slowing the game down. We played a little emotional; hats off to them.

"We'll see them one more time and luckily we are still up a game in first place on them. The next goal for us is to beat Paris on Friday."

Alex Murphy led off Pleasant Grove's second with a check-swing, Texas Leaguer single over the second baseman's head. Tucker Anderson smacked an RBI double that bounced off the wall in left center.

Cason Head hit a sacrifice fly RBI to score Traveler Couch, who had walked. Brock Bearden laced in a 2-run double to right field to give the Hawks a 4-0 lead. Alex Galvan had an infield single RBI to pad PG's lead, 5-0.

Liberty-Eylau bridged the gap in the third with an RBI single by Nate Moore and a sacrifice fly RBI from Bellatti. The Leopards trailed 5-2.

JM Long hit a fireball roller down the right-field line to drive in Bearden, who had singled, to pad the Hawks' lead 6-2 in the fourth. Alex Murphy hit an infield RBI single to extend the Pleasant Grove edge, 7-2.

The Hawks put up three insurance runs in the sixth. Galvan, Brenton Clark, Long and Murphy each singled in consecutive fashion. Long drove in a pair of runs and scored on an throwing error to give Pleasant Grove a 10-2 lead going into the seventh.

Clark doubled for the Hawks with two outs in the first frame but was left stranded. The other Leopard hit was Bryce Blackwell's single to right center in the fourth.

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