Eisenhower players celebrate after defeating Cochranton 15-14 in eight innings Friday. Photo by Jen Neal

RUSSELL — Kael Hunt’s RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted Eisenhower to a dramatic 15-14 baseball victory over Cochranton on Friday.

In a testament to never giving up, the Knights found themselves down 9-0 before their first at-bat, but they put up eight runs themselves in the bottom of the first inning to close the gap. Hunt, Cam Jakubczak and JJ Darr had an RBI, and Brok English and Derek Childs drove in a pair of runs to highlight the rally.

Eisenhower added a pair of runs in the bottom of the second inning on Cochranton errors to take the lead 10-9.

Griffin Williams came on in relief for the Knights and retired 10 straight before Cochranton exploded for five runs in the top of the sixth to take the lead 14-10.

Eisenhower managed to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth when Jensen, Casey, Jakubczak and Childs all had singles to drive in a run to tie the game 14-all heading into the seventh.

Hunt came on to pitch for the Knights and he shut down the Cardinals, who finished with 13 hits.

Then Eisenhower put the game away in the eighth inning.

Jakubczak and Johnny Palmieri both singled to start the rally. Jakubczak stole third and Childs drew a walk to load the bases.

That brought Hunt to the plate and he delivered, his single scoring Jakubczak with the winning run.

The Knights pounded out 19 hits, led by Jakubczak, Hunt, Childs, English, Palmieri and Jensen.

“We have been telling the boys to keep working, one game at a time, one batter at a time,” Eisenhower coach Derek Jensen said. “I’m just proud of these young men. They continue to work hard. We’ve had some tough, close games where we came out on the short end, (so) it’s nice to see their hard work pay off. (It was) just a great team win.”

Dragons bounce back with non-region baseball win

DRAGONS ‘BREAK OUT’

WATTSBURG — After being outscored 33-6 in three Region 5 losses since Saturday, Warren’s baseball team “broke out a little bit” in an 11-3 non-region win on Friday at Seneca.

The Dragons (3-5 overall) led 7-0 after two innings en route to their first road win since the final regular-season game of 2021.

“It was nice to break out a little bit after a tough few games,” said Warren coach Andrew Morrison after lopsided losses to Corry, Cathedral Prep and McDowell. “The middle of our order really stepped it up today. ‘Dip’ (Eric Dippold) is on a roll right now and is a really good hitter when he attacks the way he has been the last few games. Anthony (Errett) is always a tough at-bat and was on base all four times. … Owen (Blum) is someone we count on to knock runs in for us and he did a great job today.”

Dippold finished 2-for-4 with a home run, three stolen bases, four runs and four RBIs. Errett was 2-for-2 with a double, two walks and two runs. Blum ended 3-for-5 with a double and five RBIs. Aidan Zdarko added three hits and Gio Elinsky two more in the 13-hit attack.

“The big difference today was we were solid in every phase,” said coach Morrison. “The pitchers did a great job of throwing strikes. We have a long week next week so we wanted to keep pitch counts down. We only made one error and stole 10 bases; that combined with the hitting is a good recipe.”

Konnor Hoffman started on the mound for Warren, combining with Carson Farr, Zdarko and Archie Teconchuk to strike out nine Seneca batters.

“Also, Carson made a diving catch in left to save two runs in the sixth,” said Morrison.

“I’m proud of the guys for coming out ready to go,” he said. “They got a bit of an earful from me after the McDowell game (14-1 loss on Wednesday), and they responded really well. (With) three home games next week, we want to use this momentum and go on a run here.”

Also on Friday in a junior varsity win, Warren pitchers CJ Wyman and AJ Slattery combined on a shutout and Slattery hit a two-run homer.

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Jon Sitler contributed to this report.