Shockers Sought Out Revenge and Force Game Three Against Sox

By Mitchell Broughton
The National Weather Service issued an Upset Alert in Elkton last night as the second-ranked New Market Shockers traveled to Stonewall Memorial Park to play to stay alive after falling to the Blue Sox in a heartbreaking game one stunner on Sunday night. However, the only storm that passed through the valley yesterday was the barrage of hits that the Shockers let loose on the Blue Sox defense, New Market got their revenge last night winning 11-3.

Elkton started out exactly where they left off in game one, ahead of New Market. In the bottom of the first, with two runners on and two outs, it was Jack Marshall that opened up the game’s scoring with an RBI double scoring J.J. Loker to put the Sox up 1-0. Leading off the next inning, Jose Rocha hit a deep fly ball to right field where a New Market player collided with the fence in an attempt to make a play and struggled to get a hold of the ball afterwards. Rocha used his speed to make it all the way around for an inside-the-park home run, his fourth homer of 2020. Later in that same inning Will Decker would hit a double through the gap to score Jack Bourdon, increasing Elkton’s lead to 3-0.

New Market bounced back in a massive fifth inning rally that was started out with a two-run homer over the left field fence to tie the game at 3-3. Matt Moon, Nick Goode, Grant Thompson, Haden Madagan, and Ty Bennett all got base hits in that fifth inning for the Shockers. In total, New Market had seven base hits and scored seven runs to take a 8-3 lead heading into the sixth, and Elkton couldn’t get any offense going to make a comeback. There were a few offensive leaders for New Market last night. Grant Thompson had a game-high three hits, including a double and two RBIs. Matt Moon was a threat hitting at the ninth spot. The catcher had two hits and a game-high three RBIs. Every member of the Shockers’ order got at least one hit last night, most had multiple. In total, New Market was able to put up 17 hits on the Elkton pitchers. 

Tad Dean pitched eight innings for New Market. After the early scoring, he held the Blue Sox scoreless for six straight innings, often putting his defense in the position to make some great plays. Dean finished the night with three strikeouts, three walks, and gave up eight hits in a win. Ethan Laird relieved him in the ninth and closed out the game striking out two of the final three outs.With the win, New Market forces a series-deciding game three that will be held tonight (weather permitting, of course) back at Rebel Field. Both Elkton and New Market have the talent to put up a lot of runs, but the deciding factor will ultimately be the pitching, which at this point the Shockers have the edge in. 

FINAL: New Market 11 Elkton 3. Win: Tad Dean (1-0). Loss: Carson Atkins (1-2).