Spartans claim 7-6 walk-off win against Raiders

Published 10:43 pm Thursday, March 27, 2025

By Jeff Nations

South Warren was certainly down against visiting Warren East on Thursday — five runs worth — but the Spartans certainly weren’t out against their onetime district rivals.

After rallying from that five-run deficit to knot the score, the Spartans walked off a 7-6 victory when senior first baseman Grey Pearson slashed a fly ball to left field for a sacrifice fly that brought home Griffin Rardin for the winning run.

“Warren East is a nice ballclub,” South Warren coach Chris Gage said. “Some good arms on the mound and they hit the ball really well, so they look like a complete team — again. It’s nice, them not being in our district anymore, because now we get some good out-of-district competition with them and it helps us when we do go into district.”

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Warren East (2-3) got going early, plating two runs in the top of the first inning. Brenden Bratcher scored the first on a delayed double steal when William Alexander stopped midway between first and second and drew a throw, allowing Bratcher to steal home. The Raiders scored a second run on a wild pitch.

South Warren (7-0) answered in the bottom of the first with an RBI double Rardin, the Spartans’ slick-fielding senior shortstop. That was just the start of a big night for the Shelton State (Alabama) commit and son of Western Kentucky head baseball coach Marc Rardin. Griffin Rardin ended the night 4-for-4 at the plate with a pair of doubles and two RBIs, and earned the win in relief.

The Raiders tried to bury South in the top of the third. Alexander got the rally going with a mammoth solo home run to right field, his first of the season. Matthew Escalera and Dane Parsley followed with back-to-back singles. Escalera scored after swiping third on a double steal and drawing a wild throw. Parsley and Briggs Young, who drew a walk, then pulled off another double steal to put two runners in scoring position. Carson Choate brought them both home with a two-run double to cap the rally and put East up 6-1.

The Spartans made sure the traffic on the bases resembled Campbell Lane two days before Christmas in the bottom of the third. Camden Page drew a leadoff walk, then Ethan Reynolds and Rardin followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases with no outs. Casey Green unloaded them on the first pitch of his at-bat with a bases-clearing double to drive in three runs.

The Spartans got one more run on a Joseph Fentress sac fly RBI, but the Raiders managed to wriggle out of further trouble still holding a 6-5 lead.

It proved a temporary reprieve — Rardin’s RBI single tied the score at 6-all in the bottom of the fourth.

“A perfect game by him, really,” Gage said of Rardin. “You can’t ask for anything else. He plays great defense, hits the ball real well and then comes in and wins the game on the mound.”

Rardin on in relief in the top of the sixth with serious trouble after East put two runners in scoring position after Hinton drew a leadoff walk and Alexander followed with a double. Rardin got a strikeout for the first out, then the Raiders tried a suicide squeeze that went wrong when East didn’t get the bunt down and Hinton was an easy throw out at the plate. Rardin closed out the inning with another strikeout.

Bratcher, a Lindsey Wilson commit who moved from shortstop to the mound in the fourth, kept the Spartans at bay by striking out the side in the bottom of the sixth.

Rardin allowed a leadoff walk to Kieran Jones in the top of the seventh, but the right-hander then struck out three straight batters to keep the game tied heading into the bottom of the inning.

“I don’t see it going any better than it did, other than maybe hitting a home run,” Rardin said. “But I’m perfectly fine with this outcome.”

Rardin led off with a booming double to left and Green followed with a bunt single. The Raiders elected to intentionally walk the next batter to load the bases and set up a force out at home. Bratcher, who struck out five over 3 1/3 innings, got the first out by inducing a pop-up. He had two strikes on Pearson, too, before the senior put a good swing on a pitch and sent it to the outfield for the game-winner.

“He got two strikes pretty quickly there — their pitcher’s got a pretty nice breaking ball, I think that’s what Grey put in play,” Gage said. “Grey has grown over the years and really trajectory-wise as a hitter, he’s gotten a lot better. He’s handling breaking balls really well right now.”

Warren East outhit the Spartans 10-9, an encouraging performance after the Raiders got off to a slow start at the plate this season. Alexander was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Bratcher and Young added two hits each.

“We left a couple runs out there,” Warren East coach Wes Sanford said. “We did some things early that probably cost us a couple runs possibly, but that’s a really good team offensively and defensively and pitching-wise. I’m proud of our guys because as bad as we looked last week offensively, it was good to come out and at least outhit them. I know not all of them were wall-bangers or scorchers, but we put the ball in play, we stayed through the ball well. It tells me that the guys were listening.”

Green added two hits for the Spartans.

Warren East hosts Bowling Green on Friday, while South Warren is home to face Christian County on Saturday.

WEHS 204 000 0 — 6 10 1

SWHS 104 100 1 — 7 9 2

WP: Rardin (1-0). LP: Bratcher (1-1).

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

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