After wintery weather kept them sidelined for two days the West Greene baseball team got its week started on Wednesday by taking down South Greene 8-0 in District 1-2A action.
“This was a good win. It was a complete game from the whole team,” West Greene coach Adrian Sauceman said. “We got good pitching from Jayden (Cox) and Eli (Brown), and no errors from the defense, you’ll take that anytime you can get it. We didn’t hit it as well as I’d like, but we got on base and we ran the bases well. It was a good overall day.”
Jayden Cox was dominant on the hill and kept the Rebels guessing all afternoon. In six innings he struck out 12, walked four and gave up just one hit to earn the win.
“He was throwing strikes, and at a higher than he has been,” Sauceman said. “I’ve been on him pretty hard about getting his strike rate up, and if he continues to do that he can be dominant. He threw the ball really well, and when he’s right he can be really tough.”
The win moves the Buffaloes to 5-2 in the year, but more importantly it was their first victory in league play after dropping the opening series to Unicoi County. South Greene drops to 0-5 and 0-3 in league play.
In the third inning the Buffaloes got the scoring started as the lineup rolled over and they got their second look and Rebels’ pitcher Colton Fillers. Ethan Carpenter got things going with a line drive to left field, and then he quickly stole second. Jhonen Bath followed by ripping a shot through the left side of the infield for a double that pushed across the first run of the day. Aiden Willett knocked in Bath on a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.
Carpenter and Bath hitting out of the one and two spots in the lineup each reached base four times on Wednesday. Bath had a double and Carpenter stole three bases.
Cox followed that up with a three-strikeout side in the top of the fourth inning. That completed a stretch where he struck out eight of nine Rebels that came to the plate.
West Greene pushed across two more runs in the fourth inning as the lead grew to 4-0. Christian Hunter launched fly ball into the right-center gap for a single. Carter Stills put him on third when his groundball followed the chalk down the left field line.
Hunter scored on a sacrifice fly from Bronson Brown and Stills scored on a wild pitch.
South Greene put its first runner in scoring position in the fifth inning, but pinch runner Wyatt Fender was caught trying to steal third to end the side.
In the bottom of the fifth West Greene stretched its lead to 8-0. Carpenter led off the side with a walk and Bath followed by reaching on an error. Carpenter scored on a groundout and Bath scored on a wild pitch.
Cox helped his own cause by launching a double to the fence in right-center. Brandon Hunter then reached on a walk. Another wild pitch scored Cox, and an errant throw back to the mound allowed Hunter to score.
West Greene scored its eight runs on just five hits. They were able to execute when runners got on base and then took 18 extra bases on steals, passed balls and wild pitches.
“You’re not always going to hit the ball well, so it’s important to move runners when they get on and to take advantage of any mistakes you get. It was huge to take advantage of what we got tonight,” Sauceman said.
Colton fillers took the loss for South Greene in four innings he struck out one, walked two and allowed four hits.
Eli Brown threw the final inning for the Buffaloes and struck out two of the three batters he faced.
T Ricker earned South Greene’s only hit of the day.
