By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

For the first time in the history of both schools, Evangel Christian Academy faced Cornerstone Christian Academy on the baseball diamond on March 26. Evangel, an Alabama Christian Sports Conference school, is now able to play Cornerstone, an AISA school, due to a recent rule change by the AISA allowing members of the homeschool-based ACSC to compete against AISA competition in non-region games. Cornerstone split the first-ever series with Evangel, beating the Lightning 9-8 in the first game before Evangel bounced back to win game two by a final of 4-1.

 

Game 1. Cornerstone 9 – Evangel 8

The Chargers jumped out to an early 4-0 lead after the first inning when Jacob Foster, Jeffrey Odgers, Will LaFollette and Cade Adams all crossed the plate. Hahn Hahn Lau got a run back in the top of the third for Evangel to pull the score back to 4-1, but Odgers scored in the bottom of the third inning for the second time in the game thanks to two errors and a balk to lengthen the lead back to four heading into the fourth inning.

Matt Sides, Seth Harrison and Lau all reached base either via hit by a pitch or being walked to start the fourth inning for Evangel, and Jacob Albright then reached base on an error, which scored Sides and Harrison. Max Shaw and Cameron Kimbrel both grounded out on the ensuing at-bats, which scored Lau and Albright respectively, pulling Evangel even at 5-5. Another run in the top of the fifth and two more in the top of the sixth gave the Lightning an 8-5 lead on seven unanswered runs heading into the final inning.

In the final inning however, Cornerstone promptly loaded the bases with no outs before Tanner Faulkner and JoJo Joiner combined to drive home a pair of runs. Grant Henderson and Nick Greene were then intentionally walked, but Odgers then reached base on an error, which scored two runs to end the game and give Cornerstone the 9-8 win. There were 11 total errors in the first game between the two.

 

Game 2. Evangel 4 – Cornerstone 1

Cornerstone took a 1-0 lead heading into the third inning before the Lightning scored a run in the third, two in the fourth and another run in the fifth to squeeze out a 4-1 win. Weston Akin pitched a complete, five-inning game for the Lightning, throwing 62 pitches while giving up three hits and one run in the winning effort. Albright led the way from the plate in the second game for Evangel, going 2-for-3 from the plate with an RBI.