By Cade Haak
WHITE OAK, Texas (August 1, 2024) – Texarkana fell behind early in the game and could never recover as the TimberHogs went on to win 13-7.
White Oak immediately started the game in a dominant fashion as they scored six runs in the first inning and followed that up with three more runs in the second.
In the third inning, the Rhinos began to chip away at the nine-run lead that the TimberHogs had already established. The Rhinos started off the inning with two singles, then the third single from Rylan Evans drove in Yuto Mimura from third base. A walk and an error then allowed the Rhinos to load the bases, and Alex DeLeon drew a walk to allow Rylan Evans to score.
The fourth inning was the first in a streak of four where Piney Woods was able to score a single run each inning. In the midst of this streak of innings, Texarkana matched the output by scoring four runs in the top of the fifth alone.
Lane Epperson got the first RBI in the fourth inning by hitting a single up the middle of the field that allowed Sota Suzuki to score. Neil Jansen followed up this single with a double to score both Rylan Evans and Lane Epperson. Shortly after his double, Neil Jansen was able to score on a wild pitch for the fourth run of the inning.
In the top of the ninth inning, Neil Jansen showed off his power as he hit his eighth home run of the season, putting him even further ahead in the Rhinos home run rankings.
The Rhinos used three different pitchers during the game, none of which could truly get going as the TimberHogs proved to be good enough to take on any arm the Rhinos staff offered up.
