COLUMBIA – The Westwood baseball team’s Region 5-4A opener did not go as expected Tuesday night at A.C. Flora.
The hot-hitting Redhawks had troubles on the mound. The Falcons took advantage of faulty pitching and literally walked off with a 13-3 victory over the Redhawks in five innings.
“The way we look at it was that we gave them 16 free bases (with 11 walks, three hit batters, and two errors). You take that away and you’re looking at a 3-1 ballgame,” head coach Nathan Caldwell said. “Me and the pitching coach talked, he is not happy. We’re going to go back to the drawing board and get some things ironed out and we’ll put out a better brand of baseball moving forward.”
Westwood (6-3) got off to a slow start. A.C. Flora (2-5) starting pitcher Carter Harrington struck out the side in the top of the first. In the Falcons’ turn at bat, Redhawks starter Remy Gilbert gave up eight runs on just one hit—the damage came with four walks, a hit batter, an error and a passed ball that scored a run.
Gilbert lasted just 2/3 innings, facing 10 batters. Austin Jeffcoat came on in relief and pitched 2 1/3 innings, giving up four runs on four hits and three walks. Christian Schumacher worked a clean fourth inning, but hit a batter and walked three others, including the game-ending 10th run in the bottom of the fifth.
Westwood’s runs came in the third and fourth inning. In the third, Nathan Caldwell hit a one-out single, moved to second as Ni’J Steadman batted, and scored on Steadman’s single. Raelyn Seaton crushed a double to leftfield that scored Steadman and cut A.C. Flora’s lead to 9-2.
The Falcons moved up to 12-2 going into the top of the fourth. Micah Henryhand laced a single, stole second and scored from second when Zach Nelson reached base on a dropped third strike.
Steadman went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Seaton also doubled and batted in a run.
This year’s Redhawks have a chance of at least equaling or bettering last year’s season, said Caldwell, who is in his second year as head coach. Westwood finished the 2023 regular season 8-10, but earned a playoff spot.
The Redhawks lost four seniors from last year but return a good core of the team that went 0-2 in the 4A playoffs.
“We have a young team. We’re only graduating three this year, but we’re going to hit the ball,” Caldwell said. “But we’ve got to dial in with pitching. If we can throw strikes, we can pretty much with anybody, I think.”
Gilbert, Henryhand, and Soveone Ferner are seniors. Seaton is a freshman along with Kellen Moore. Nate Caldwell and Jeffcoat are sophomores, and Xavier DeJesus, Gabriel Espinosa, Schumacher, and Steadman are juniors.
The Falcons play host to A.C. Flora today at 6:30.
Westwood – 0-0-2-1-0 – 3, 6, 2
A.C. Flora – 8-1-3-0-1 – 13, 6, 0
WP: Carter Harrington
Hitters: W – Ni’J Steadman 2-3, 2B, RBI. Rae Seaton 2B, RBI. F – Lucus Biel 2-3, 2RBI. Roper Wentzky 2-4, 2RBI.
