Wilson’s walk-off propels Indians over Vianney

Another cold day means another win for the Jackson Indians baseball team, this time winning 5-4 in walk-off fashion against the Vianney Griffins. Lance Wilson was the hero for Jackson, knocking a single to right and bringing home Cooper Rhodes for the game-winning run.

After going down 1-0 in the top half of the first, Jackson answered back with a Jaiden Glency double which scored Rhodes. Again Jackson went down 2-1 before Waylon Hale hit a triple to deep center field and brought Peyton Kight in for the run.

Vianney took the lead back one more time but the script flipped after a Garrison Brown home run scored two, giving the Indians a 4-3 lead. The Griffins managed to tie but Wilson’s seventh-inning walk-off ended things. Jackson head coach Josh Roach said the offense showed up and their pitchers kept them in it.

“I was extremely proud of them, they hit the ball very well. Against Vianney who has good pitching, of those three guys we saw I think two of them are committed to SEC teams. They're big-time division one arms, and our guys were not intimidated by it. They came out swinging and did what they were supposed to do and did their jobs,” Roach said. “Defensively, we played well behind them behind our pitchers. Cole [Koeberl] and Adrian [Fox] got behind in some counts but kept us in the game. Then Ryan Turlington comes in and pitches two great innings, so overall we just did a lot of things right.”

Koeberl earned the win for the Indians and the three Jackson pitchers combined for seven strikeouts, seven walks and just three earned runs on seven hits. The home run from Brown was his second one in the three games this week and Wilson is batting .500 in the same stretch, so no shortage of offense for the Indians. Roach said there are not enough words to talk about each of those guys.

“Garrison Brown not only with his bat which he's got tremendous power to the opposite field as we saw today, but his defense in centerfield going to get to fly balls that last one deep in the left-center gap. My goodness, he probably ran 75 yards to get that ball, but he's a fantastic centerfielder and hitter,” Roach said. “Then Lance Wilson, I mean I can't say enough about Lance Wilson. He just came up from the JV squad this past week, and he’s just hit nothing but rockets everywhere. Of course, his game-winner was a little fist job right over the second baseman but he got the job done. He was not intimidated and he was he was the man for the job.”

Jackson will be back in action at home on Saturday for a doubleheader where they will battle Ft. Zumwalt West at 10 a.m. and then clash with Ozark at 3 p.m.