Reggie Eiland wins game with walk-off grand slam

By James A. McCray III
Prince George's County, Content Manager

Gwynn Park Yellow Jackets first baseman Reggie Eiland stood in the batter's box Friday afternoon against the visiting Surrattsville Hornets with the grandest of situations staring him in the face.

The Yellow Jackets were down 9-7 with two outs in the final inning of the game, but the bases were loaded and the opportunity to become a late-game hero was only one swing away.

With that one swing from Eiland, Gwynn Park head coach Matt Cooke, coaching from third base, and every other player and coach looked towards the sky and watched the ball sail over the left-field fence as Eiland ended the game with a walk-off, grand-slam home run to deliver the Yellow Jackets an 11-9 victory.

"I just wanted to hit the ball", said Eiland who finished the game with 5 RBIs. " ... I have been letting my team down this whole game, so I just wanted to come out here and get a base hit so I could bring two runs in, but luckily I got under the ball and it went over the fence."

"That was nice," Cooke said. "I have been here 12 years, and I have never seen a walk-off grand slam. Reggie has been hitting the ball pretty well. ...He definitely gave that ball a nice charge."

Although Gwynn Park improved to 6-1 after the victory --and later in the day improved to 7-1 with a win over Friendly-- the Yellow Jackets have not been playing its best, according to Cooke.

"That was the third straight game where we have played very sub-par," he said. " ... We left the bases loaded in the first couple of innings, and we just don't come up with those timely hits. So, that really hurts us, but a win is a win, and we'll take it."

Gwynn Park in fact struggled early throughout the game and things looked bleak as Surrattsville exploded in the fourth inning for four runs to take a 7-4 lead.

Zion Bryant hit a RBI triple to tie the game at 4 and moments later crossed the plate himself on a wild pitch to extend the Surrattsville lead to 5-4.

After an additional run scored, Lonzo Cook was able to steal home to further extend the lead to 7-4.

Gwynn Park answered back in the bottom half of the fourth on a sacrifice RBI from Eiland to cut the the deficit to 7-5.

Each team would add a run in its respective half of the sixth inning, and trailing 9-6 entering the half final inning of the game, the Yellow Jackets scored its seventh run of the game via a bases-loaded walk to set up Eiland's walk-off dramatics.

"We have played bad three games in row and we are 2-1 in those last three," Cooke said. "Hopefully when it all does start clicking and working well, we will be alright."

As for Eiland, he has major plans for the ball that traveled over the fence for his first-ever, walk-off home run adding: "I'm going to go put it in my bag, put it on my wall or something in my room."

E-mail: James A. McCray III

Gwynn Park 11, Surrattsville 9

Surrattsville  -- 1 0 2   4 1 0   1 --  9  11  4
Gwynn Park -- 1 2 1   1 1 0   5 --  11 7   2
WP: B. Proctor  LP: Pennix

Extra-base hits: 2B S (Pennix); 3B S (Scott); HR GP (Eiland)