ROXANA – The Roxana High School baseball team hosted the Granite City Warriors in a double-header last Saturday (May 7). Granite City won game one of the doubleheader by a score of 8-1.
Lucas Haddix started on the mound for the Warriors and tossed all seven innings. He picked up five strikeouts while only allowing a single run. He has credited the win bringing his team’s record back to .500 going 10-10 with seven games remaining on their schedule.
The Warriors jumped out to a lead quickly. In the first inning Mason McMurray doubled scoring two runs with only one out. Roxana pitcher Aidan Briggs got out of the inning after a strikeout and a lineout to prevent further damage. Briggs finished with four K’s through four innings but allowed six runs.
The Warriors never had a true blowout inning, they gradually put a couple of runs on the board each at-bat. Even tacking on a couple more in the sixth inning against the Shells’ reliever Jon Webb.
Roxana’s one run came in the bottom of the second. Briggs hit a leadoff single. Nolan Tolbert bunted to advance Briggs to second and into scoring position. Kael Hester singled scoring Briggs from second to prevent the shutout.
“We put guys on base and had some good situations there, but we just couldn’t come up with a big hit,” Roxana head coach Jerry Wheaton said after game one. “They hit it where we weren’t, and we hit some balls right at them.”
With the loss, the Shells fall to 8-19 on the season after a grueling schedule. They have four games remaining.
Both teams will be back in action today (May 9). The Shells will play at Greenfield at 4:30 p.m. while the Warriors will take on the Alton Marquette Explorers at Gordon Moore Park also at 4:30 p.m.
