Gunnar Hensley tangles with Wardlaw Academy’s first baseman Tuesday diving back to the bag. (Photo/Ross Burton)
WINNSBORO (April 27, 2016) – Richard Winn’s scoreboard got plenty of action Tuesday night when the Eagles hosted the Patriots of Wardlaw Academy. Unfortunately for the Eagles it was Wardlaw doing the majority of the scoring, as the Patriots picked up the 17-7 road victory.
“I was just disappointed” Richard Winn head coach Paul Brigman said. “We beat these guys earlier in the year, and we really just played poorly tonight. We made tons of errors, and so that was disappointing that we did not play better.”
The game started with Coker Gilbert, Richard Winn’s starting pitcher, walking Wardlaw’s lead-off batter, Hammond Manly. Caleb Kemp brought Manly into score with a one-out single.
Kemp then scored off of a single on the next at-bat, and Wardlaw seized an early two-run lead. A balk by Patriot’s starter William Prince cost the team a run in the first, but Richard Winn stranded a baserunner in their efforts to erase Wardlaw’s early lead.
A second consecutive lead-off walk by Gilbert came back to cost the Eagles again. Bailey Goldman knocked in an RBI-double, and he later came around to score on an error.
Richard Winn went into the bottom of the second trailing by a bigger deficit. A Jacob Steel RBI single, accompanied by runs on an error and wild-pitch evened the game back up heading into the third inning.
The tie would be short-lived. Kemp came up big again in the top of third, starting things off with a double.
An error cost the Eagles another run, and then Patriot’s freshmen Zach Berry blasted in an RBI triple. Wardlaw then played some small, and scored twice with sacrifice hits.
For the third straight time Richard Winn went into their half of the inning trailing, and again they showed off some resiliency by cutting the lead from 8-4 to 8-7. Not to be outdone, the Eagles showed off their sacrificing skills with two sac-fly runs of their own.
“Coker Gilbert, who is our pitcher, he’s done a really good job this year of being strong early,” Brigman said. “It’s difficult for us to play from behind because we’re challenged a little bit with our sticks, and it kind of puts you up against the wall early, and we’re just never able to recover.”
In a climatic change of pace Wardlaw did not pick up a hit or run in the fourth inning. The Eagles were not able to take advantage, and blanked in not only the fourth inning, but the rest of game.
Wardlaw began to revamp things starting in the fifth inning. Starting pitcher William Prince knocked in an RBI, but it was in the sixth when the Patriots really were able to pull away.
Owen Everding had an RBI double, and Kemp, the name that would not go away, put two RBIs on his scoresheet with another single. Zac Berry grounded out but in the process collected himself another RBI.
Goldman had two singles, and an RBI in the top of the sixth. They collected six runs on four hits, and stretched the lead out to 15-7.
“It’s tough especially when you’re making mental errors,” Brigman said. “It’s tough to deal with as a coach. You want your team to play well, and if you get beat by a team that just hits the ball better than you, you can almost handle that, but when most of it is your own doing its really, really difficult.”
The Patriots added onto the lead in the final inning, scorching another double which paved the way for two more runs to cross the plate. The insurance runs were the nails in the coffin of the blowout victory.
The loss will not hurt Richard Winn’s playoff standings.
“It doesn’t affect our playoffs,” Brigman said. “We’ve actually finished second in our region, and we’re in good shape for the playoffs. We will probably have a home playoff series. Now of course as far as our confidence level going into the playoffs, there is probably an effect there.”
RW:1-3-3-0-0-0-0
WA: 2-2-4-0-1-6-2
Pitching: RW- Coker Gilbert (L), 5.2 IP, 6H, 14R, 12ER, 4BB, 4K, 1HB. WA- William Prince (W), 2.1 IP, 2H, 7R, 2ER, 5BB, 1K, 1HB. H. Manly- 4.2 IP, 2H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 1K.
Hitting: 2B- Hunter Glisson (RW); Caleb Kemp, O. Everding, H. Manly, B. Goldman (WA). 3B- Zac Berry (WA). RBI- Jacob Steele, G. Hensley (RW); C. Kemp (2), Z. Berry, O. Everding, W. Prince, B. Goldman, B. Gossett (WA).
LOB: RW-5, WA-4.