GRANGER — Reese Jamison and Brandon Worley have yet to spend a single minute in a high school class, yet the two eighth graders are already making their mark on the Woodward-Granger varsity baseball team.
Jamison threw five steady innings and Worley gave the Hawks two innings of stingy relief to earn, respectively, the win and the save in a 4-2 non-conference victory over CMB Friday.
“This was big for Reese as he collects his first varsity win and Worley gets his second save,” W-G head coach Eric Evans said.
“It was a great game with no errors,” he added. “This is how we should be playing in July. I told the boys we will be better in July than we were in May and the boys are buying in and believing!”
Jamison (1-1, 1 save) allowed two runs on six hits while walking two batters and hitting two others. He finished with six strikeouts, four of which slammed the door on rallies to limit the Raider offense.
Worley has outstanding in relief, allowing one hit and fanning three in two innings for his second save of the season. He is 3-0 on the season and has allowed only one earned run in 20 total innings on the bump for a 0.35 ERA.
Their battery-mate Friday was freshman Colt Palmer, with sophomores playing three other positions. With two juniors and two seniors comprising the rest of the lineup, W-G (14-9) will be able to field an experienced team for the next several years.
In a statistical oddity, CMB (9-10) played with a lineup in which the first three batters were named Brady and the clean-up hitter Brad. With Brady Aunspach playing shortstop for the Hawks, the odds had to be good that the game featured more Brady’s and Brad’s in action than any other game in the state.
Brady Stover opened the game with a base hit and promptly stole second base before Jamison fanned Brady Ross. Brady Kemp and Brad Ritter were both hit with pitches to load the bases with no outs, but the young Jamison showed the nerve of a veteran by recording consecutive strikeouts to avoid damage.
Brady Aunspach and Cole Theisen hit consecutive two-out singles in the bottom of the first, with Jackson Larson singling home Aunspach. Singles from Jamison and Austin Scharlau followed with back-to-back hits, each of which drove in a run as the Hawks opened a 3-0 lead.
CMB got on the board in the fourth when Spencer Gauch walked, swiped second and scored on an Arick Broderick base hit, with Broderick scoring later in the frame when Stover singled, but Jamison fanned Ross again to stop a rally with a strikeout for the second time.
Ritter walked with one out in the fifth and stole second base, but was thrown out by Palmer when he tried to steal third. Two base hits put runners on second and third as the Raiders threatened to tie the game or perhaps take the lead, but Jamison once again rose to the occasion, striking out Gauch to silence the threat.
Aunspach singled to start the W-G fifth and moved to third on a pair of wild pitches. He was still there two outs later when Jamison singled him home for a 4-2 lead.
Worley induced a fly out, a strikeout and a come-backer to the mound in a quick sixth inning in relief, then struck out the first two batters in the seventh before Ritter singled. A fly out ended the game.
Ritter yielded four runs on nine hits while striking out five in five innings. He was relieved by Kemp, who allowed one hit and struck out one in one inning on the hill.
W-G visits Gilbert Tuesday before completing their regular season with home dates against Audubon Thursday and Colfax-Mingo Friday.
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