Pitching, defense propel Harrison baseball past Lafayette Jeff in sectional opener
KOKOMO − Corbin Payne hasn't had many bad outings, but one in particular stood out.
One month ago, Lafayette Jeff roughed up Harrison's ace lefty, who was pulled after giving up three runs in just ⅓ of on an inning.
Wednesday night, Payne got another crack at the Broncho lineup and this outcome was much different.
Payne struck out 10 in five innings, including a combined seven (four in the fourth) over a two-inning stretch, and Harrison's offense eventually supplied him with run support in the Raiders' 8-2 sectional-opening victory at Municipal Stadium.
"We knew coming in that they were hungry," Payne said. "They wanted us. I think they thought they had it, but with our team's fight, nobody was taking us down."
In what was a pitching battle between Payne and Jeff's Aiden Marcus, Harrison's deserve proved more trustworthy.
The Raiders took advantage of a dropped fly ball in the top of the first to score early and capitalized on four Jeff errors in total.
"This time of year, you want to rely on your pitching and defense and tonight I thought both were pretty good," Harrison coach Pat Lowrey said.
Payne gave up just one, Asa Koeppen's double off the wall, and an infield single by Garrett Rainey came against reliever Gavin Owsley.
Jack Dowell singled twice for Harrison and the Raiders provided Payne with a cushion when Hayden Slate doubled in a run in the fourth, then scored on an error.
"Those insurance runs really helped," Payne said. "Once we kept piling them on, I felt a lot more comfortable."
The Raiders' quest for a sectional three-peat continues Saturday against Logansport, which won a nine-inning thriller over Kokomo on Wednesday.
"Early, it looked like a pitcher's duel. Corbin has been really good this year," Lowrey said. "Every single outing except his one the first time we played Jeff, the first inning was rough. Other than that, every single one has been kind of like that. He gave us a chance.
"He went deep. We were able to save Gavin a little bit. It was big in a lot of ways holding them down until our bats got going."
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Pitching, defense propel Harrison baseball past Lafayette Jeff
