Austin Borries was hit by a pitch to load the bases again. Jason Kreke, Carter Hoene and Henry Thompson all walked to force in runs and Addis capped the uprising with a two-run double down the rightfield line.

“We’ve got a lot of new arms without much varsity experience this year,” Curran McNeely, the EHS coach, noted. “But we have to do a better job of putting the ball across the plate and make them swing the bat. We had too many walks.”

Up to that point, the Hearts hadn’t trailed in the game.

Colton Webb staked Effingham to a 2-0 lead in the opening inning. Andrew Wagoner led off the game with a base hit. One batter later, Webb smacked a high fly ball to right that carried over the fence for a two-run homer.

“Colton has been doing a nice job for us in the 3-hole,” McNeely noted. “He’s been hitting the ball.”

The Shoes got single tallies in the second and third to tie the game.

T-Town received four walks, the last one to Worman with the bases loaded, in the second. In the third, Borries led off with a double. Kreke then lifted a high pop up behind second base that fell for a base hit. When the ball dropped, Borries took off for third base and continued home after a throwing error.

The Hearts regained the lead in the top of the fourth. Jude Traub lined a base hit up the middle to start things. Max Flach then dropped a single over the shortstop’s head. With one out, Wade Bushur was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Wyatt Hayes brought in the run with an infield hit.

Effingham missed a pair of golden opportunities to expand the lead. After scoring that run, the next two batters were retired, leaving the bases loaded.

Then in the fifth, Webb led off with a base hit – his third hit of the game – followed by walks to Max Seachrist and Traub to load the bases. But, again, the next three batters failed to deliver and the Hearts stranded three more runners.

“That fifth inning really hurt,” McNeely admitted. “We had the bases loaded and no outs. You have to find a way to put the ball in play and push runs across in that situation. But we didn’t do it.”

EHS stranded nine base runners in the contest – six of which were in scoring position.

After the Shoes scored seven times in the sixth, the Hearts got two tallies in the seventh – taking advantage of three straight fielding errors by T-Town, and pushing the first run across. Hayes then singled to right to drive in another run, but courtesy runner Brayden Tucker was thrown out at the plate when he tried to score as well.

Addis started and pitched the first four innings for THS. He allowed five hits and three runs, while walking one and striking out seven. Andrew Probst relieved in the fifth and got credit for the win. He gave up two hits and two runs, while walking three and striking out four in three innings of work.

“That was Gavin’s first start and I thought he threw well,” Fleener said. “Andrew came in, dug himself a hole, but worked his way out of it. That was a good sign.”

The Hearts took more of a committee approach, using five pitchers in the game. Peter Rose, Hayes and Bushur each pitched one inning. Rylan Pals then relieved in the fourth. He pitched the next 2.2 innings and took the loss. Nick Martin got the final out in the sixth.

The five hurlers combined to allow nine runs on six hits. They struck out six, but walked 11 batters.

The Hearts are now 5-3 and will travel to Mt. Zion today (Tuesday) for an Apollo Conference doubleheader.

The Shoes improved to 9-1. They will play at Olney today.

“Overall, I’m pleased with where we’re at right now,” Fleener said. “But we have to get better approaches at the plate and execute better on defense. Those are things we need to work on.”