Big play helps Cats keep lead against Marbury

The Enterprise baseball team withstood some threats in the latter innings of its March 31 game and earned a 4-2 victory against Marbury.

"I think our guys competed after this tough stretch of games,” EHS baseball coach J.D. Pruitt said. “The guys had the day off (Thursday) and then to be able to come in today and put on their competing hats, I thought our guys did well."

The Wildcats had a slim 3-2 edge when the sixth inning started after MHS scored twice in the top of the fifth.

The Bulldogs were poised to tie the game or take the lead when they put runners on second and third with nobody out, but EHS reliever Elliott Baxter went to work.

He fanned a batter for the first out, caught a runner leaning at third on a pickoff attempt and struck the last batter out to  end the threat in a sequence Pruitt said changed the game.

"We saw this guy here at third base," he said. "He had a pretty big lead, and he was really extending on the leg lift. We called a timed pick to third base we’ve got in. We try to save that play for big moments like that. It was a one-run ball game. That’s the tying run right there. All of a sudden, boom. That completely changes the complexity of the inning, swings the momentum our way and then…we get out of it with no damage. It was definitely a huge spot in the game. I thought we executed that extremely well. It definitely got us out of the jam."

Baxter pitched two innings and struck out two in relief of starter Cole Smith, who pitched five innings and struck out three for the win. 

"We kind of knew what we were going to get out of him today," Pruitt said of Smith. "Consistent Cole comes out and gives us a good, quality start. Elliott Baxter does a phenomenal job of coming out of the bullpen and not allowing them to tack on and get any closer in the game."

The Wildcats were able to scratch across an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth when Gabe Anderson hit a one-out single, moved to third when Lance Levine reached on an error and scored on a sacrifice fly to center from Mason Marsh to give the Cats their final 4-2 advantage.

"That insurance run right there was huge," Pruitt said. "It changes the way you pitch to hitters, because we were at the top of their lineup. Now, we can be a little bit more aggressive as far as how we attack their hitters in the top half of that seventh inning there because of that insurance run."

Enterprise scored first in the second inning when Trey Simmons roped a triple to left and scored on one of six Marbury errors.

Santi Garcia doubled to center with two outs in the third inning, and pinch runner Connor Purvis scored on another error to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.

Ryan Page led off the EHS fourth with a double to left, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on Simmons' RBI groundout.

"When a team gives you additional outs, you’ve got to make those guys pay," Pruitt said. "You’ve got to be able to take advantage of the opportunity they give you. We talk about the freebie war all of the time, whether that’s walks, hit by pitches, errors or stolen bases. We want to make sure we come out on top in each game. If we can do that, that’s going to give us an opportunity to have success offensively and defensively. Being able to win that today was the difference in the game."

The Bulldogs pulled to within 3-2 in the top of the fifth on an RBI single and an error before EHS ended their next threat in the sixth. 

"That single (pickoff) play changed the complexity of the game right there," Pruitt said. "They’ve been through a tough stretch. Hat’s off to them."