JCD baseball falls in emotional opener

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The memory of wildlife photographer and Jac-Cen-Del student-athlete Carson Hughes was honored on Saturday as part of his Eagle baseball team’s season opener at Morristown.

It was a season-opening Saturday in which the circumstances could never have been fathomed by any. But Jac-Cen-Del baseball found itself opening its 2024 season and doing so with extremely heavy hearts.

On a day where the spirit of senior Carson Hughes looked down upon his coaches and teammates but his physical presence was deeply missed, the Eagles took to the diamond with head coach David Bradshaw but came up on the short end, falling to host Morristown by a 13-2 final score.

Morristown as the home team was well-aware of the circumstances prior to first pitch and paid tribute in first-class fashion to the Jac-Cen-Del community. The Yellow Jackets honored the memory of Hughes during the pregame ceremonies.

As for the game itself, the Yellow Jackets plated two runs in the bottom of the first inning but Jac-Cen-Del responded and tied the game with a pair of runs in the top of the third. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the rest of the afternoon belonged to Morristown who scored four runs in response as part of the bottom of the fourth and seven more runs in the bottom of the fifth ended the game via the 10-run mercy rule.

Neil Sullivan drove in the lone earned run for Jac-Cen-Del and went 1-for-2 with a run scored. Clark Dwenger added the other hit for the Eagles while Keagan Williamson scored a run.

Dwenger pitched three innings for the Osgood crew, allowing four runs -three earned- with seven strikeouts and two walks. Sullivan, a freshman, followed with one and one-thirds innings and gave up six earned runs on three hits with three walks and a strikeout. Freshman Brody Huff gave up three runs on three hits with a walk in one-thirds innings.

Jac-Cen-Del (0-1) was slated for a home game on Monday against South Decatur before hosting Southwestern (Shelby) today.