By Chris Parker
Logan-Rogersville knew all week that they were going to be facing an elite arm when they stepped into the batter’s box for Wednesday’s state semifinal game against Sullivan.
The Eagles sent their ace Drake Gawer, a Texas Tech commit with a low to mid-90’s fastball, to the mound.
The Wildcats used various methods to prepare for Gawer all week, and the preparation paid off. Logan-Rogersville scored in every inning they batted on the way to an 11-2 win over Sullivan.
“Our kids just battled,” Logan-Rogersville head coach Casey Ledl said. “We have really worked on that the last three days. We knew we were going to see velocity tonight. I will credit some old guys who came out and helped us out. They will know who they are and then our coaches. We had them at about 40 feet throwing as hard as we could just to try and get our kids ready. I thought that they battled, and they were really disciplined about being in the zone and I thought it paid off offensively for us.”
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Gawer exited the game after 3.2 innings with six strikeouts and five walks yielding five runs.
The Logan-Rogersville pitchers also faced their own battles with Sullivan putting the leadoff hitter on base in six out of seven innings. The Wildcat pitcher’s locked in each time and only allowing two of the six to score. That was thanks in large part to holding Sullivan to 3-for-18 (.167) with runners in scoring position on the night. Sullivan stranded 12 runners on base.
“I think (starter) Nate (Eakins) would tell you he didn’t have his best stuff tonight, but man did he battle,” Ledl said. “He made some big pitches with runners on, and that is just stuff you can’t teach. He is a gamer. We had two younger ones come in. That was another sophomore and freshman that came in after him and they did one heck of a job staying in the zone, staying within themselves and making great pitches.”
Eakins, a sophomore who improved his season record to 9-1, went 4.2 innings with four strikeouts giving up two runs. He was followed by classmate Cole Evans and freshman Charlie Britton who threw 2.1 innings of shut out ball to close out the win.
Offensively, sophomore Jackson Purse led the way going 3-for-4 with five RBI and 2 runs scored. Eakins also drove in two runs to help his own cause.
Logan-Rogersville advances to the program’s second state title game in four seasons.
“We’re going to go back to work tomorrow. We’re going to do everything that we normally do. Nothing changes,” Ledl said. “Obviously they are going to know it is a big game, but at the same time we are going to do what we do.”
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Logan-Rogersville will face the winner of Father Tolton Catholic and Chillicothe for the Class 4 state championship at 7 pm on Thursday in Ozark at the Ozark Mountain Sports Complex.
