Big Red battles past the Red Riders
Photo by Andrew Grimm Big Red's AJ Borsch makes contact with a pitch against Weir High on Monday. Borsch had a big RBI double in a Steubenville win.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Big Red's Jaggar Rawson dives back into second base as Weir's Kason Lash catches a pickoff attempt.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Weir's Teddy Glyptis makes a play at shortstop.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Big Red's AJ Borsch delivers a pitch against Weir High.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Weir High's Cayden Braswell fires a pitch against Big Red.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Weir's Matt Geer launches the ball against Big Red.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Big Red's Royal Mayo makes a throw for an out.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Big Red's AJ Borsch makes contact with a pitch against Weir High on Monday. Borsch had a big RBI double in a Steubenville win.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Big Red's Jaggar Rawson dives back into second base as Weir's Kason Lash catches a pickoff attempt.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Weir's Teddy Glyptis makes a play at shortstop.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Big Red's AJ Borsch delivers a pitch against Weir High.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Weir High's Cayden Braswell fires a pitch against Big Red.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Weir's Matt Geer launches the ball against Big Red.
Photo by Andrew Grimm Big Red's Royal Mayo makes a throw for an out.
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STEUBENVILLE -- Needing his team to get out of a jam, Big Red head coach Justin Banks turned to senior Cole Bowers with a simple mission -- get one out and get the team back to the dugout.
The Army football recruit and three-sport All-Ohioan needed just one pitch to accomplish what his coach asked, getting a groundout to leave the bases loaded and keep his team down just one run.
Then, in the home half, Bowers' second hit of the game drove in a pair of runs and was part of a six-run Big Red outburst that would make him the winning pitcher in an 8-6 victory over visiting Weir High Monday afternoon at the Crimson Complex, sapping a two-game slide.
"I told him when we went out there, 'I need you get one (out).' He said, 'coach, I'll get you whatever you want,' and he just went out there and did it," Banks said, "He has been iceman ever since I've known him and he's still got that going. It was a great day for Cole. Army has a good one coming.
"We found a way, we kept battling. We had a big, six-run inning and it ends up being a good day. This is the way we wanted to come out and start the week, with a win and hot at the plate."
Bowers' two-run knock came after Chase Beall and Royal Mayo had singled in a run each to put Steubenville (4-2) on top. Matt Fabbro put a ball in play that brought home another run, then AJ Borsch, the starting pitcher whom Bowers came on to finish the inning for, ripped a two-run triple off the fence to to put an exclamation point on the rally.
"AJ didn't have his best stuff today, but when we got to third base he told me, 'At least I'm doing it one way.' He helped us out tremendously with his bat today," Banks said. "Our guys just continue to fight and claw. Look at Royal, he had a hard line out right at someone in the first inning and then, when it really counted, the hit dropped for him. They stuck with it and the hits started to drop in the big inning. I told them to keep fighting and that's what these guys keep doing."
Big Red, which led 7-3 five, had to hang on as the Red Riders (4-7) came storming back with a big inning of their own. Aleks Zanieski drew an RBI walk with the bases loaded in the top of the six after the previous three batters had gotten aboard, then Nick DiMatteis cleared the bases with a triple to make it a 7-6 game.
Jaggar Rawson, who came on in the midst of the rally with the bases loaded, though, got out of the inning with the lead in tact and then fired a scoreless seventh for a five out save.
"Jaggar had a rough outing his last time out and came out here today with the confidence to throw strikes," Banks said. "That's what we needed him to do and he threw strikes, let his defense work behind him and got a big strikeout at the end."
Rawson gave himself some insurance when he reached on an error in the outfield and scored from third on a dropped third strike throw to first in the bottom of the sixth.
The Red Riders had a couple of costly miscues and left 10 men on base in the two-run loss.
"We made a lot of mistakes, we let a lot of opportunities slip by," Weir head coach Dave Cowden said. "We left the bases loaded two innings in a row and you can't do that against anybody and expect to win. We're still finding ourselves. We just didn't get the big hit.
"They took advantage with their big inning, we tried to fight back, but we just made too many mental mistakes."
Cayden Braswell struck out seven for Weir in going the first 4 2/3 innings, but ultimately took the loss after Big Red's bats finally broke through.
Big Red got five punchouts in 4 2/3 from Borsch, but he also walked seven.
UP NEXT
Weir High: Looks to bounce back today hosting county rival Oak Glen in a rematch of their 1-0 win back during the opening week of the season.
Big Red: Is right back in action today on the road at St. Clairsville.
Big Red 8, Weir High 6
WH 0-0-1 1-0-4 0 -- 6 6 2
BR 0-0-1 0-6-1 x -- 8 8 1
WEIR HIGH (4-7): Braswell (LP, 4 2/3IP, 7R, 6ER, 6H, 7K, 2BB), DiMatteis (1 1/3IP, 1R, 0ER, 2H, 1K, 0BB) and Williamson. Glyptis S; Zanieski S, 2RBIs; Braswell S; DiMatteis S, T, 2RBIs; McAllister S; Williamson RBI.
BIG RED (4-2): Borsch (4 2/3, 2R, 2ER, 4H, 5K, 7BB), Bowers (WP, 1/3IP, 0R, 0H, 0K, 0BB), Greiner (1/3IP, 3R, 3ER, 0H, 2BB, 1HBP), Rawson (SV, 1 2/3IP, 0R, 2H, 1K, 0BB) and Simmons. Mayo S, RBI; Bowers 2S, 2RBIs; Borsch T, 2RBIs; Chmerloski D; Beall S, RBI.