By BY BRUCE HIXON – SPORTS EDITOR
It was not the way the W.S. Neal Blue Eagles baseball team had played their first four games.
That largely explains why the Blue Eagles suffered their first loss of the season Monday when they dropped a 9-0 decision at home to the Flomaton Hurricanes.
For starters, W.S. Neal was blanked on a combined six-hitter by Flomaton pitchers Will Hines and Johnny Mize. This came after the Blue Eagles had scored 37 runs in their first four games.
W.S. Neal also made three errors in the field, made two balks on the mound and lost two runners on the bases.
Blue Eagles starting pitcher Josey Brown matched Hines with zeroes on the scoreboard for the first three innings. Brown temporarily preserved his shutout in the bottom of the third when he worked out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam when he got Scott Walton to hit into a six-four-three double play.
Brown and the Blue Eagles were not as fortunate in the top of the fourth. Hines singled, was balked to second, went to third when Mize reached on a throwing error and scored on an RBI single by Tyler Coleman. Coleman stole second and went to third when Josh Lambeth reached on a fielder's choice. Coleman and Lambeth then completed a successful double steal, as Lambeth scored on the front end of the play to make it 2-0.
The Hurricanes got to reliever Josh Sawyer, who took over for Brown in the fifth, for five runs in the top of the sixth to break the game open. Chris Edwards, Caleb Bethea and Cory Greyson came through with RBI singles, but the biggest blow was a two-run double by Walton that made it 7-0.
Josh Lambeth added an RBI double and Keegan Lambeth had an RBI single in the top of the seventh that completed the scoring.
W.S. Neal's only real serious threats to score came late in the game.
The Blue Eagles loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth on two-out singles by Sawyer and Jared Cooper followed by a walk to Jake Smith. Mize relieved Hines at that point and got out of the jam when he fanned Jacob Cannon to end the inning.
The Blue Eagles got a one-out single by Tyler Nall and a two-out walk to Jimmy Conner in the bottom of the seventh, but stranded both.
W.S. Neal, which hosted Escambia County Tuesday, gets back into Class 4A Area 2 action Friday when it hosts T.R. Miller for doubleheader. Play gets underway at 4 p.m.
At W.S. Neal
Flomaton 000 205 2 - 9 13 0
W.S. Neal 000 000 0 - 0 6 3