MINT HILL, NC – On Wednesday the Independence Patriots’ varsity baseball team traveled to Cornelius, North Carolina to take on the Hough Huskies in a non-conference baseball game.

Indy’s Frankie Jones, Jr. led off with a bunt and was moved over to second on a Nick Reddish walk.  Sam Merli came to the plate and hit a fly ball deep to right field moving the runners to second and third. With two runners on and one out, Joe Reddish stepped into the batters’ box and hit a sacrifice fly to center field scoring Jones from third to give the Patriots a 1-0 lead after a half inning.

In the bottom half of the inning, Hough answered with a run of their own.  Hough’s lead-off hitter, Chase Brown, reached on a walk, but the next two Huskies’ batters went down in order.  Scott Loubier came to bat and hit a long fly ball to deep center field scoring Brown and tying the score.

The Patriots found themselves down by seven after the Huskies jumped out to a 8-1 lead after six full innings.  However, Indy show that they had a no-quit attitude.  Heading into the top of the seventh inning, senior Garrett Lawrence led off with a hard-hit ball to deep center field for a double. Noah Neubauer followed with an infield hit scoring Lawrence.  Cooper Golden was next up and laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Indy’s final run as the Huskies went on to a 8-3 non-conference win.

With the loss Indy drops to a 1-1 record with an away game against Mallard Creek coming up Friday.

Independence   100 000 2 – 3

Hough               121 220 X – 8