Independence celebrated Senior Night with a dramatic non-conference win over visiting Beachwood on Wednesday.
The Blue Devils scored two runs in the bottom of the first and added eight more in the second then had to fight off a late Bison rally to win, 10-8.
“We were cruising along 10-0 and then Beachwood came right back,” said Independence coach Mark Echstenkamper. “It was Senior Night so I started all eight seniors and they were doing really well but it was good for the seniors. Everybody got in and played.”
Kyle Stefanski’s one-out single got things going for the Blue Devils in the first. Owen Ramm and Tyler Teare then drew walks to load the bases and Andrew Teribery hit an RBI single. Teare later scored on a bases-loaded walk to make it 2-0.
Nick Mrcozynski and Stefanski both walked in the second setting up Ramm’s three-run homer. Sam Spacagna and Mroczynski doubled in the inning and Teare and Zak Billings both singled.
Nine of the 10 Blue Devils who played in the game earned at least one hit. Stefanski, Teribery and Billings all finished with two hits for Independence and Spacagna knocked in a team-high four runs.
Spacagna started and pitched two scoreless innings to pick up the win. Stefanski entered in the sixth and held the Bison scoreless to earn a save.
“That was a good game,” Echstenkamper said. “That puts us at .500 on the year and we play our last game at Harvey (on Thursday). The seniors aren’t going; it’s just going to be the underclassmen.”
Independence improved to 12-12 on the year after starting 1-6.
“This was a good senior class,” Echstenkamper said. “The kids have responded well to everything we asked them to do and they worked hard. We had that disappointing 1-0 loss in the sectional finals but they finished strong. I was happy for them.”
