The Thrall Tigers (13-5-1 overall, 6-1 District 27-2A) made the most of six hits to double up the Milano Eagles (0-10, 0-7) 8-4 Tuesday night and remain a game back of district-leading Thorndale.
Thrall took a 2-0 lead in the top half of the first inning. A pair of hits by Hayden Stefek and Ty Bradford, along with an Eagle error allowed the first Tiger run. Two outs later, Bradford scored on a ground out by Hayden Heselmeyer.
Not to be outdone, the Eagles struck back with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the first. Although, Cayden Watson allowed a single hit in the inning, Milano was able to take advantage of a hit batter and a walk to knot the score.
The Tigers took the lead for good in the second. Mac Hamann led off the inning reaching on an error. He later scored on a pick-off attempt. Tyler Bonkowski accounted for the next Tiger score. After being hit by a pitch, he stole second and third, then scored on an error that put Stefek at first. Stefek came all the way home on two more Milano miscues and the Tigers led 5-3 after two.
Thrall added runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings to push their lead to 7-2. Milano cut the margin by one in the bottom of the fifth, and the teams again traded runs in the seventh to close out the scoring.
Milano was plagued by defensive problems all night, committing 11 errors. But, the Eagles outhit the Tigers 7-6, but could never gain the momentum after the first inning.
Watson picked up the win for the Tigers, running his season record to 4-0 after allowing the Eagles three hits over four innings and striking out five.
The Tigers hosted the Bremond Tigers on Saturday and will travel to Bremond for the second match-up on Tuesday. Thrall will travel to Holland on Thursday to begin the two-game series with the Hornets.
