By: Railey Ayers

Thursday, the Crenshaw Christian Academy varsity baseball team hosted the Eastwood Christian (Montgomery) Warriors in a battle to keep undefeated records intact. The Cougars, on their home field, emerged victorious once more from their closest battle yet- though they could hardly be considered close in any sense of the word.

CCA locked in a 7-1 victory in seven innings, but the lead was closer than the Cougars liked. A win by six was a win by a slim margin to the Cougars, whose average margin of victory is 10 runs.

The most runs scored against Crenshaw in a game is a measly three, not much more than the average one run allowed by the Cougars per game.

Tanner Dillon captained the stellar CCA defense from the pitcher’s mound. The sophomore threw on a level that Eastwood’s seniors could not even touch, allowing the Warriors only one hit and zero runs in five innings.

Junior first baseman and relief pitcher Sam Barksdale took over the mound in the sixth inning, and allowed no hits and no runs during his tenure on the mound.

Senior second baseman and closer Cole Roper pitched the final inning, allowing two hits and one run.

Junior Clayton Hester held the infield together from shortstop, along with adding two runs.

“We’re undefeated right now,” said Hester, who has started every game for the Cougar infield and committed zero errors in all of their games.

“We have two big region wins already. But our schedule gets tougher from here, so we will have to keep playing good defense like we know how, hitting the ball well and playing like a team. This should be our year.”

Combined with stellar defense, another identifiable mark of this Cougar team is an aggressive base running scheme. They average nine stolen bases per game.

Junior Ben Archie led the Cougars’ prolific base running attack with four stolen bases- he averages three per game- and tacked on an RBI and two base hits- only one less hit than Eastwood’s entire team. Senior Cade Calhoun added two base hits and two runs batted in.

“Our defense is playing great, only allowing three hits today,” Archie said simply and matter-of-factly.

“We’re just playing good baseball.”