Three baseball games were played on Monday, May 4, 2009, and the Ferguson family boys came away with three victories. Donovan Ferguson went 1 for 3 hitting leadoff for the Jackson Dealerships Coach Pitch baseball team, who defeated the Mattoon Fire Department in an exciting contest 12-11. The win gives Jackson a 1-0 record for the season which has seen an inordinate amount of rained out ballgames. Donovan also played shortstop and first base, making fine plays that, as it turned out, ended up ensuring the victory for his team.
Daniel Ferguson hit second in the lineup for his First National Bank squad who opened the season with a convincing 18-1 victory over American Legion. Daniel did not have much to hit at as he had three bases on balls in three plate appearances. In his first trip around the bases he stole home on a delayed steal to put First National up 2-0. He scored on an RBI double into left centerfield in the second inning off the bat of Payton Hartbank, who was the winning pitcher. Daniel scored his last run of the game in the second inning as well as Alex Short drove a fastball off the wall into deep left centerfield, easily scoring Daniel from second base. First National sent 16 batters to the dish in the second inning, scoring 11 runs on only 4 base hits. The American Legion team felt extremely generous as they committed three costly errors while issuing 5 walks and hitting 2 batters.
The most exciting game of the evening was the finale in which First Baptist Church defeated Matchbox 7-4 to improve to 1-1 for the season. First Baptist scored three runs in the top of the first with Damien Ferguson getting an RBI single. He stole second and came around to score on an RBI single hit by teammate Skyler Hood.
Damien was the surprising starting pitcher for First Baptist as he took the mound in the bottom of the first. He struck out Dylan McDowell swinging to begin the inning, but walked Davis Johnson on a 3-2 count, getting squeezed on ball 3 and ball 4. Brock Moncel followed by popping up to shortstop Trevor Edwards for out number 2. It appeared Damien would get out of the inning unscathed as Austin McDowell hit a grounder back to Damien, but the throw to first base was dropped, allowing Johnson to score an unearned run from second base, where he reached safely on a steal. Gibson Moncel walked on a full count as Damien was getting squeezed again by the home plate umpire, but Damien kept his cool and struck out Noah Patterson on 3 pitches to end the inning.
Damien resumed pitching duties in the bottom of the second, striking out Joel Goodrich on 3 pitches, as Damien's changeup buckled the knees of the batter as he took strike 3 right down central. The dominating pitching of Damien continued as he struck out the next batter, Alex Lensik, for out number 2. Kaden Conlin followed, reaching on a an error by the second baseman, as the ball went right under his glove and into right field. Joe Beedles then became the third strikout victim of the inning, swinging and missing on a 3-2 fastball.
Damien did not pitch in the 3rd and 4th innings. He came to bat in the top of the 3rd inning with the bases loaded and 2 outs with his younger brother, Donovan, standing at third following a walk and 2 more bases on balls, and on a 2-1 pitch Damien hit a slow roller up the first base line. The only play the pitcher had was to try and get Donovan trying to score from third, and Donovan, an excellent base runner, was off immediately as soon as the ball was hit, speeding towards home. He went in hard with a very good slide. Everyone knew he was safe as he clearly had beaten the throw home to the plate . . . everyone, that is, except for the one person whose opinion counted. Donovan was called out, ending the inning for First Baptist.
First Baptist would build the lead to 7-4 and Matchbox came to bat in the bottom of the 6th inning with Trevor Edwards now doing the pitching. Following a leadoff single to Davis Johnson, Trevor struggled with his control, and he proceeded to walk the next 2 batters to load the bases. The coach then decided he had seen enough, so he brought Damien back in to pitch. Trevor took over duties at shortstop, and the tension mounted as Matchbox had Gibson Moncel, the potential winning run, coming to the plate with the bases loaded and still nobody out. Damien was cool as a cucumber in ice, though, and he responded to the challenge by striking out Gibson on 3 pitches. Next up was Noah Patterson, who hit an 0-1 pitch high on the infield which Damien called for and put away for out number 2. Damien, with his back to third base, faked a throw to first base, hoping to lure the aggressive Davis Johnson at third base to take the bait and try to score. Damien then turned and fired a strike home to catcher Drake Jefferies, who tagged out Johnson who tried unsuccessfully to leap over the catcher, ending the inning and the game on an unusual duoble play.
Damien was awarded the game ball following the conclusion of the ballgame as he not only got the victory, he also recorded a save in the same game.
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