Eastern’s Chase Purdy hammers out a hit in the Warriors’ April 27 league victory over Ripley.

By Wade Linville – 

The Eastern Warriors claimed sole possession of this year’s Southern Hills Athletic Conference Division I title with a 13-3 road victory by mercy rule over the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs on May 2.
The Warriors were in need of a win while venturing to Lynchburg-Clay High School to win the league title outright, rather than having to share the league crown with the Mustangs.
It was Ethan Battson pitching for the win at Lynchburg-Clay with Kevin Schmid coming in later to close.
“In the top of the fourth (inning) we came out and put four or five runs on the board which really changed the complexion of the game,” Eastern head coach Steve Goetz said of the win at Lynchburg. “We were able to work through a couple of those tough innings and finally got the bats out and got the momentum going.”
The Warriors capped off their regular season with a 11-2 record in SHAC play.
The Warriors entered Tuesday’s contest at Lynchburg coming off league wins over the Ripley-Union-Lewis-Huntington Blue Jays and the West Union Dragons and stood at an overall record of 12-6 following the win over Lynchburg-Clay.
After taking their share of lumps in recent years, Goetz was pleased to see the years of hard work pay off for his Warriors this spring.
“It’s great to see all of their hard work and determination pay off and to get rewarded (with a league title) this year,” said Goetz.
Eastern’s senior shortstop Calder Holton played a significant role in the Warriors’ May 2 victory over the home standing Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs, a win that earned the Warriors’ sole possession of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference Division I title. Holton went three-for-three at the bat while also reaching base a couple of times on walks, scoring four times in the Warriors’ 13-3 victory by mercy rule.
Eastern’s Ian Wiles went two-for-three at the bat in Tuesday’s win at Lynchburg.
Eastern’s Chase Purdy swung for two hits in four at-bats with four RBIs.