SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – The Shelbyville Central Golden Eagles (4-1) took advantage of some untimely pitching from the Community Vikings (1-7) to survive the upset bid on Wednesday, 4-3. 

Shelbyville Central star Stephen Bobo, who got the start on the mound, was exited the game following his lead off at-bat in the home half of the first inning with a sore achilles. This prompted Braxton Vari to come on in relief, and Vari did an admirable job on the mound, pitching the final 6.0 innings and giving up just one unearned run on five hits and one walk with five strikeouts on 72 pitches. Bobo’s status remains day-to-day for now.

“If Braxton [Vari] hadn’t come in and did what he did, we would have gotten beat,” Golden Eagles’ Head Coach Chase Jones said, “They put a two-spot up in the first and only scored once after that. We’ve got to get better offensively. It just feels like we’re fighting uphill right now at the plate. The way we’re hitting, we’ve got to grind out at-bats and find ways to get on.”

The Golden Eagles only registered four base hits all afternoon, and used three errors from the visitors to help push across three of their four runs.

On the other side, the Community Vikings tallied seven hits on the day, and managed to score two runs in the first inning against a compromised Bobo. First, Brody Armstrong led off with a full-count single, followed by a wild pitch and a passed ball that allowed him to reach third base with no outs. Josh Powers was able to send Armstrong home on an RBI-groundout to second, and then Wes Haley was able to draw a walk before reaching second. Isaiah Beech delivered an RBI double to put the Vikings ahead 2-0, but he was thrown out at third base trying to stretch it into a triple by Miles McCullough in right field to end the inning.

Tyler Wood got the start on the mound for Community, and he lasted 4.0 innings, giving up just two runs – one earned – on three hits and one walk with four strikeouts on 60 pitches. One of those runs came in the bottom of the first inning after McCullough reached first safely with a perfectly executed bunt base-hit. McCullough reached second, and then with two outs he was able to come home safely thanks to a wild pitch to trim the lead in half.

Shelbyville Central tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the second, Brody Thomas reached safely with a base hit before he too came home to score on a passed ball.

The Vikings nearly re-took the lead in the top of the third after Josh Powers recorded a hit, but he was thrown out at the plate on a single from Wes Haley into left after a strong relay throw from Blake Bone allowed Caden Peacock to apply the tag in time. 

In the top of the fifth, Community did in fact re-take that lead at 3-2 when Powers registered his second hit of the day on an RBI-single to score Bryce Blanton.

However, with Haley on the mound in the bottom of the fifth, the Vikings gave up two more unearned runs, allowing the Golden Eagles to take the lead for good. First, Vari worked a leadoff walk, and then a sacrifice bunt by Camron Burke sandwiched between a pair of wild pitches allowed Vari to reach home plate safely to tie the game at 3-3. Then, a pair of dropped pop-ups by Armstrong at shortstop allowed Westbrooks to reach scoring position at second base. Blake Bone delivered the eventual game-winning RBI-single, driving home Westbrooks to give the hosts a 4-3 lead that they would not relinquish.

“We’re fortunate. We had a few hits today, but we really didn’t have any timely hits besides [Blake Bone],” said Jones, “We had to grind to get to the four runs that we had and we’re very fortunate to get out of here with a win today.”

Shelbyville Central improves to 4-1 overall. The Golden Eagles host Marshall County on Thursday at 4:00 p.m.