DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
BERNE – Derek McKean may not have started the game for the South Adams Starfires Thursday night, but he definitely put it to bed.
Entering the game in the third inning, McKean closed the door on the Southern Wells Raiders, limiting the damage from what was a big rally for the visitors and throwing four more shutout innings to pick up the win as the Stars beat the Raiders, 10-5, Thursday night.
When McKean entered the game with two outs in the top of the third, he inherited a mess. Back-to-back errors, each of which should have gotten the Starfires out of the inning, had left the bases loaded with a once-healthy SA lead down to just 6-5. To make things, worse Jakob Gearheart, who homered to lead off the game, was up to bat.
McKean needed just one pitch to get out of the inning, popping Gearheart up to left and then he never looked back.
The Starfires responded by scratching out a run in the bottom of the inning and when McKean came back out for a regular, full inning, he set the Raiders down in order on just nine pitches.
That set the home team up for the biggest moment of the game as they loaded the bases for Sty Pyle and he tripled all three runners home to score what would eventually become the final tallies of the ACAC contest.
Landon Johnson took the loss for the Raiders, despite getting seven of his eleven outs via the strikeout. He was charged with all ten runs (six earned), before being relieved after the Pyle triple in favor of Gearheart, who allowed just one hit in 2.1 innings of scoreless relief.
McKean also led the hitting attack with a pair of singles and two runs scored.
Brendon Sprunger also had two hits, as did Pyle.
The much-needed win for the Stars gives them their first conference victory, while the Raiders remain winless and in last place in the ACAC at 0-4.
The Starfires are set to host Blackhawk Christian Saturday morning if the weather allows.
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