FORT BENNING, Ga., (June 26, 2013) -- Three different players had triples Monday, while another had a two-run, inside-the-park home run, and the 198th Infantry Brigade pummeled the 11th Engineer Battalion 21-6 at Gowdy Field.
The 198th scored eight runs in back-to-back innings and forced a 15-run mercy rule at the end of four innings. John Hughes helped the brigade open up the offensive can in the top of the third inning by blasting an inside-the-park home run toward the centerfield wall. After Mike Evans followed with an RBI-triple and the Engineers committed three errors in the inning, the 198th had a 13-3 lead.
The Engineers played the game one man short, which meant an automatic out was recorded whenever they got to their 10th batter. However, it seemed like they would produce enough offense to avoid the mercy rule.
George Ruiz hit a two-run, inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the first inning and the Engineers only trailed 5-3. They didn't allow any runs to cross the plate in the top of the second, but the automatic out rule caught up to them the next time they were up to bat.
In the bottom of the third, Mark Simao knocked in two runs with a single to left field and the Engineers cut the deficit to 13-6. But again, extra base hits by the 198th, and more errors on the part of the Engineers led to another big inning. The Engineers committed three more errors, while Paul Murphy had an RBI-triple and Andrew Yeomans hit a two-run triple down the right field line.
"Normally, we average about five batters an inning," Murphy said. "Today, we got about eight or nine batters. Today was a good day."
Murphy said his team wasn't even thinking about how many runs it was scoring.
"We knew we were winning, but we didn't know we had that many runs," he said. "We were just hitting the ball. In softball, the biggest thing you have to do is get base hits. That's how you win."
The 198th finished the game with 16 hits and improved to 4-1 on the season.
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