Strong pitching performances by Luke Lutrell and Baylor Varner, who each allowed one earned run on 78 pitches through five innings, carried the Harlan Green Dragons to a pair of victories Saturday at Barbourville.
Luttrell, a freshman left-hander, struck out seven and walked one while giving up four hits in a 3-1 win over Richmond Model. Varner, a sophomore right-hander, allowed three hits while striking out eight and walking three in a 6-2 victory over Barbourville.
“When you have those two as a 1-2 punch in a doubleheader, that’s a great spot to be in,” Harlan coach Lee Freyer said. “These two wins were complete team wins. Everyone contributed in some way to help this team today. With only a couple weeks left in the regular season I really like where we are. Hopefully, we continue to build on the momentum and finish our season strong. We are seeing the ball well at the plate. Eli (Freyer) has really caught fire as of late. He puts in a lot of work behind the scenes on his game. It’s great to see that showing up on game days at the plate. It was good to see Aiden Johnson get hot. He had some really timely hits today.”
Jared Moore led the Dragons on offense against Barbourville with a double and single. Chris Rouse and Eli Freyer each singled twice. Varner hit a home run. Aiden Johnson doubled, and Jake Brewer singled.
Freyer and Brody Owens had two hits each against Model. Moore added a double. Johnson had a single.
“It was good to see us play a couple clean games defensively. When our pitching is on, and our defense is playing behind them we really put ourselves in a position to be successful. Coach Murph Howard always used to say the team that catches and throws the ball the best will win the majority of the ballgames,” Freyer said. “Jake Brewer and Donovan Montanaro turned a beauty of a double play to end the Barbourville game. Brody Owens is in his second year behind the plate and is way ahead of schedule. He is looking more and more comfortable back there. He and coach (Will) Varner called two great games today. It’s not easy to catch a doubleheader in the heat. He did a great job quarterbacking our defense from behind the dish.”
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Jake Brewer pitched three perfect innings while the Harlan offense collected 12 his in a 17-2 rout of visiting Pineville on Friday.
Brewer struck out five as he retired all nine batters he faced. Donovan Montanaro gave up two runs on two hits with three strikeouts and two walks in one inning.
Eli Freyer led the Harlan offense with a double and two singles. Baylor Varner had two doubles. Brewer added a double and single. Jared Moor singled twice. Chris Rouse, Brody Owens and Montanaro had one single each.
The 18-7 Dragons play host to Williamsburg on Monday and Barbourville on Tuesday.
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Harlan 010 11 — 3. 8 0
Model 000 01 — 1 4. 1
Luttrell and Owens; Kirby and Lowery. WP — Luttrell (4-1). LP — Kirby.
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Harlan 104 10 — 6. 9. 1
Barbourville 001 10 — 2. 3. 1
Varner and Owens; Clark, Miller (3) and Buchanan. WP — Varner (3-3). LP — Clark. HR — Varner (1).
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Pineville 000 2 — 2. 2. 6
Harlan 740 6 — 17 12 1
S. Caldwell, Robbins (3) and W. Caldwell; Brewer, Montanaro (4) and Rouse. WP — Brewer (4-0). LP — S. Caldwell.