Iberia gets aced

IBERIA—By his own admission, Eugene junior pitcher Damon Adrian is not the ace of the Eagle staff. His performance in Wednesday night’s Class 2 District 8 championship game against Iberia could have fooled anyone.

“It’s a pretty good feeling,” he said after his 6-1 complete game victory at Hooper Field in Iberia.

But he’s not the ace.

“No, our ace is going to pitch on Monday,” he said when asked if he’d go again in the Class 1 sectional. “Not me.”

Really? Adrian’s not the ace?

“Well, I guess we’re pretty even,” Adrian said.  “But he’s number one.”

Adrian fanned eight in a complete seven innings of work, holding the top-seeded Iberia Rangers to two hits.

“Damon had a fantastic ballgame,” said Eugene head coach Michael O'Haver.

Both Ranger hits off Adrian were singles—third baseman Austin Brown hit one of them in the second inning and Tuesday’s hero Jaron Pemberton hit the other one in the fifth.

Adrian’s Iberia counterpart, Dustin Ewers, pitched well but didn’t have his best stuff on a night where the Eagles seemed to make contact on every at-bat.

Ewers began solidly, recording a perfect inning in the top of the first with two strikeouts.

But in the second, he ran into trouble. Eagles shortstop Joe Jungmeyer reached on an error, followed by a towering home run to the short porch in left from third baseman Devin Lepper.

The Eagles scored one more in the inning when the Rangers conceded a run for the first out of the inning.

They might have scored more but Ewers got himself out of the jam with the out, a strikeout and a pickoff.

He gave up another in the fourth before being removed in the seventh.

“That’s the best hitting team we’ve seen all year,” Iberia head coach Jason Morris said. “To hold those guys to only five runs is amazing in itself.”

Pemberton scored Iberia’s only run in fifth, when he stole second and then raced around for home after a botched throw from Eugene catcher Nick Pringer.

The Rangers only threatened twice—once in that fifth inning.

Nothing came of it but the single run. After the botched throw from Pringer went into center field, Levi Luttrell tried to take third and was thrown out to end the inning.

The Rangers loaded the bases in the second thanks to a hit, a walk and two errors by Lepper, but Adrian managed to work out of it with two strikeouts and a force at home.

“We didn’t play badly,” Morris said, “but they played better. We didn’t hit well.”

The Eagles outscored their opponents 25-3 in the three district games they played this week, beating Richland 11-1 on Monday and Conway 8-1 on Tuesday before the victory over Iberia on Wednesday.

“We got the bats going early today,” said O’Harver. “Momentum took us the rest of the way.”

The Eagles came into the district tournament with a 10-9 record. They’ll improve to 13-9, and Morris said their original record was deceiving.

“They got a lot better as the season progressed,” he said. “They played a tough schedule, and they’re peaking at the right time.”

As for Iberia, they’ll finish the spring with a 14-9 record after a 14-6 fall.

They’ll lose seven seniors—Ewers, Brown, Pemberton, Joe Ward Trey Baumgardner, Brooks Baker and Levi Luttrell.

But pitchers Garth Minnick and Cody Moore will return.

“We’ll lose some experience,” Morris said. “But Garth and Cody are the No. 2 and No. 3 pitchers. We’ll still be competitive.”

Eugene will move on to a sectional matchup with West St. Francois County. The game will be in St. Louis on Monday.