It’s the second time in four years and only the second time in 29 years that the Greenville Bears have won their district title. Seniors Devon Duncan and Jacob Withrow have held that trophy both times.
After a week of wet weather, the Bears’ players could be seen Wednesday evening and Thursday morning with leaf blowers, fans, shopvacs, rakes, shovels and wheelbarrows working hard to dry the field with sawdust and sand in order to play their district semi-final game at noon.
Bears’ first opponent was Chaffee. Blakeney Kearbey took the mound for the first four innings and Trynt Tompkins shut down the fifth as the Bears rolled to a shut-out victory 10-0 in five innings. The two pitchers held their opponents to 1 hit, 3 walks and struck out 9 of the 20 batters faced.
In the second game of their district doubleheader, the Bears beat St Vincent 6-2 with Trey McDaniel on the mound. McDaniel pitched 7 innings as the Bears stopped St Vincents’ first inning bases-loaded rally with a double play 1-2-3 (pitcher to catcher to first) as well as ending the game with a 6-3-5 (shorstop to first to third) double play. McDaniel struck out 13 batters on 6 hits and a walk and hit-by-pitch.
As they have done throughout the season, the back half of the Bear’s lineup was productive for the team. The 5 through 9 batters combined to touch homeplate for 11 of the 16 runs, 10 of the 18 hits and 7 of the 13 RBIs.
Ben Becker lead the team during districts in batting average (.750) and on-base percentage (.883) going 3-4 with two walks and scoring 3 times.
The Bears, currently ranked 2nd in the state in Class 2 baseball, will now face Valle Catholic who is ranked 1st in the state. These two teams have not squared off before, but Valle Catholic will prove to be the toughest team Greenville has faced in years. The game is currently scheduled for Monday hosted by Greenville but the weather is threatening to push the game further into the week.