The Pleasant Home Eagle’s bats found a lot of life Thursday night in Pleasant Home as the Eagles swept Ellwood Christian in the opening round of the Class 1A state playoffs.

 

PLEASANT HOME 11, ELLWOOD 1

In the opening game of the best-of-three series, the Eagles charged out to an early lead and cruised to an 11-1 win in five innings.

Garrett Barton got the start on the hill of the Eagles and struck out the first two batters of the game.

Walt Weaver drew a walk to start the first inning and later came around to score on single from Barton for the first run of the game.

A passed ball scored the second Eagle run and then David Baker drove in Reid Adams to give the Eagles a 3-0 lead after one inning of play.

Pleasant Home added three more runs in the bottom of the second inning.

Barton drove in another run with a sacrifice fly and a then a double from R.D. Clark put Pleasant Home on top 6-0.

Pleasant Home tacked on two runs in the third and fourth, and one run in the bottom of the fifth.

Barton led the way for the Eagles with two RBIs at the plate and 11 strikeouts on the mound.

“We hit the ball better than we have been,” Eagles’ head coach Chris Mason said. “Took advantage of some of their errors and ran the base paths with more aggression. The guys were relaxed and we had fun. I’m proud of the kids for taking care of business.

 

PLEASANT HOME 14, ELLWOOD 3

The Eagles picked up right were they left off in the first game as they rolled to a 14-3 victory over Ellwood Christian in the decisive game-two.

Weaver got things started with a single and then came around to score on single from Joe Gibbs.

The Eagles plated three more runs in the opening frame to take a 4-0 lead.

Gibbs drove in three more runs in the second inning with a double to help give the Eagles a 13-0 lead going into the bottom of the second inning.

Ellwood Christian plated a run in the bottom of the second off a throwing error.

A two-run home run in the from Ellwood Christian in the bottom of the third made the score 13-3.

In the top of the fifth inning, Barton scored the final run of the game off an error.

Gibbs was on fire at the plate and finished 4-for-4 with six RBI.

Weaver and Barton each finished 2-for-3 at the plate.

Aaron Warthen, Parker Lloyd, Josh Ruth, R.D. Clark, Avery Taylor and Austin Griggs each drove in a run in the Eagles victory.