MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — For the second straight day Boyd-Buchanan’s baseball team served an opponent a heaping helping of Crowe.
Senior righthander Andrew Crowe, who had a big day at the play in the Buccaneers’ opener, was solid on the mound Wednesday afternoon, scattering five hits and driving in a run to lead a 7-2 win over Eagleville.
The Bucs, who have scored 15 runs in their first two games, are now in the driver’s seat to advance to the Class A championship in the program’s first state tournament appearance.
Today at 4 p.m., the Bucs will play the winner of Wednesday’s late loser’s bracket game between Adamsville and Eagleville.
“We’ve got a 10 seniors and three juniors who have played a lot of games in their career and I think that’s shown in how they’ve handled themselves so far,” Bucs coach Steve Robbins said. “They’re loose right now and having fun, but they know how to get serious when they step on the field.
“We’re getting good hitting, pitching and defense right now. Only one error in two games and that was a questionable one. You do all those things as well as our kids are, it makes you tough to beat.”
Boyd-Buchanan jumped out with two runs in the first and three more in the second and continued scoring through the first four innings, giving Crowe plenty of support.
“It’s so much easier to pitch when you have runs behind you,” said Crowe, who struck out six. “Our whole lineup did their job at the plate early today and that gave me a lot of confidence.”
The only shaky inning for Crowe was the sixth, when he allowed one run and had the bases loaded before striking out Matt Warner to end the threat.
Conversely, Eagleville starter Brian Smith threw 55 pitches in the first two innings and was taken out with two out in the third, having given up six runs, five of which were earned.
Zack Allen and Tyler Garner each had two hits, two RBIs, scored twice and stole two bases.
“It was really hot out there and I think when we got that big lead, you could tell it took a lot out of them,” Garner said. “We weren’t real happy with how we hit the ball in our first game so we went back to work on being better today.”