It took a little longer than coach Lee Freyer probably hoped, but the Harlan Green Dragons reached the 20-win mark Wednesday with a 4-1 win over visiting Letcher Central.
The Dragons broke a three-game losing streak with the win and broke a five-game losing streak against 14th Region opponents. It was the Dragons’ first 20-win season since reaching 20 in both 2013 and 2014.
“Winning 20 games is a bonus. It’s not something we talked about when setting goals before the season began. t’s a good milestone to reach, it shows consistency, but this group is still hungry,” Freyer said. “ I’m proud of the effort they have given all season. We have more business to take care of before we celebrate those milestones.”
Sophomore right-hander Baylor Varner was in control on the mound as he scattered six hits while striking out 12 and walking two.
“Baylor is one of those players who wants the baseball on the mound. He pitched great tonight with another double digit strikeout night,” Varner said. “When he can complement his velocity with his off-speed he is very difficult to hit. The defense played great behind him as well. We have been sloppy the last three games. We had a lot of mental mistakes to clean up. We still made some of those, but it was definitely a better effort overall.”
Varner and Brody Owens led the Harlan offense with RBI singles. Jared Moore, Aiden Johnson and Chris Rouse also added singles.
Harlan (20-10) will close the regular season with a rematch against Letcher Central on Friday in Whitesburg.
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Letcher Central 000 100 0 — 1. 6. 3
Harlan 010 210 x — 4. 5. 0
Slone, Boggs (4) and Kincer; Varner and Owens. WP — Varner (4-4). LP — Slone.