Team Black leads 9-1 in the 6th

In game one of the 2020 Steak Series Team Black used nine hits to help propel them to a 9-1 lead over Team Red after five and a half innings of play. Coach Mike Neal had to suspend the game after the top of the sixth due to the lack of lights at the field. 

    In the top of the first inning it was Christian Padilla who would hit a double in the right-center gap that looked like it would send Brandon Hambleton to the plate, but a great relay and tag by Gage Hemmann would stop Team Black from hopping out to a 1-0 lead. In the bottom half Team Red would use the momentum they got in the top of the first to add a run. Hemmann was at the plate with Zach Knox on second base when Hemmann hit a line drive to right-center that tipped off the end of Hambleton's glove to give Team Red the 1-0 lead. 

    Team Red wouldn't keep the lead long as Zach Seavers, Black Team coach, would hit a single up the middle to get the inning started. A wild pitch would advance Seavers to second. Padilla would come up in a big spot again and this time would make sure the run got home on his single. After three innings of play things were knotted at one. 

    Seavers would put his foot on the gas with things tied up and not allow another run in his 3.2 innings pitched. He would go on to allow five hits, 1 unearned run, and he would strike out out eight Team Red hitters. 

    Team Black would build off of Seavers pitching and add some run support scoring three in both the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, the flood gates opened for Team Red. It all started with a Mitch Binder single that would eventually lead to a run with the help of a couple of errors. Seavers would come up in a big spot again and hit a base clearing double that would give Team Black the 4-1 lead. 

    Team Red would make a pitching change in the top of the fourth going with Kolton Beckett. Beckett wouldn't get much help as Padilla would reach base on an error to start the inning and Team Black would make them pay. Binder doubled to left field, off of his high school teammate. And with runners on first and third, Avery Dugan would lay down a safety squeeze that scored the seventh run of the game for Team Black and give them the 7-1 lead going into the bottom of the fifth. 

    Freshman pitcher Hayden Sheehan would come back to the mound after getting the last out in the bottom of the fourth and would work through the Team Red lineup fairly quickly. Sheehan went 1.1 innings, striking out three hitters and giving up one hit.

    In the top of the sixth, Skyler McManus would get an inning for Team Red. McManus would have his struggles with the Team Black lineup giving up 2 runs, one earned run. Starting pitcher for Team Red, Isaac Garrett would be solid up until his fourth inning when errors would come back to haunt them. Garrett went 4 innings, giving up six hits, four runs, three of which were earned and struck out five batters.

    The first game of the Steak Series will be finished at 1 pm on Saturday, October 24th, pending weather. After the finish of game one, the teams will line back up and go at it again for game two.