Charlie Smith prepared a schedule for his team that would challenge them to be ready for district play, and the Winston Academy squad couldn’t have been challenged much more than they were last week.
WA had a gauntlet of a schedule starting last Monday as the Patriots played Pillow Academy, Leake Academy, East Rankin and Kossuth all in a matter of five days. The team nearly pulled off an undefeated week as they won three of the four.
“We haven’t played bad really all year we just needed to put everything together. We had a really good week,” Smith said. “We played three 5A teams and then a really good public 3A team. Pillow swings the bats well and pitches it, Leake has a really good team that is just now getting their basketball guys in, East Rankin has a lot better team than they’ve been and Kossuth is one of the best teams I’ve seen in many years.”
The week kicked off with the Patriots taking on Pillow on Monday and WA fell behind early. After going down 4-0 in the first two frames, the Pats dropped six runs on the visitors in the fourth inning and another two runs in the sixth to take home an 8-4 win.
Ace pitcher Bryson Wright had some tough luck in the first two innings as just one of his four runs surrendered were earned. He pitched 4.0 innings, gave up seven hits and had zero walks with three strikeouts. Trip Hill, Braxton Rones and Hayes Caperton pitched the final 3.0 innings giving up just two hits, no runs, a walk and four strikeouts. Caperton had 1.2 of those innings and all four strikeouts.
Rone had two of WA’s five hits in the game with three RBI, Reed Yates finished with a double and two runs scored and Caden Stuart had a triple and two RBI.
Monday was a nice comeback win for the Pats, but the next two nights were even more epic. Down to its final three outs in the seventh inning and trailing 3-1, WA rallied for four runs and shocked the homestanding Leake Rebels 5-3 to avenge a loss from the first week of the season.
Rone finished the night going 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBI, but his bottom of the seventh work on the mound was the key as he closed things out with a three-up-three-down frame that included a strikeout.
Yates went 4.2 strong innings as the starter, gave up five hits, three runs, two earned, one walk and he struck out five batters.
WA kept it going on Friday night at home against East Rankin. Once again, WA was facing their final three outs and on the verge of dropping a game. The visiting Patriots took a 4-1 lead in the fifth inning and led 4-2 going into the seventh. After tying the game up at 4-4, WA hit a ball that bounced off of the middle infielder’s face and brought home the winning run in a 5-4 victory that swept the season series against ERA.
Yates had two of the team’s four hits and drove in a run. Rone threw 4.0 innings, gave up three hits, no runs, walked three and struck out four. Jayson McMillin had 3.0 innings of relief with six hits, one run, three walks and two strikeouts.
WA ran into a buzzsaw on Saturday as Smith’s squad went to play one of the best teams in the state and their star pitcher Hank Eaton. The Auburn commitment was throwing in the low 90s and ran through the Winston batting order in a 15-0 run-rule win in just 3.0 innings.
As the week turned over, Smith’s boys traveled to the Delta to take on the Indianola Academy Colonels. Wright had his best game of the year to this point as he and Yates combined to strike out 11 batters and win 4-2.
Wright threw 4.0 innings giving up four hits, one unearned run, one walk and struck out six. Yates nearly matched the senior hurler as he went 3.0 in relief with four hits, one run, no walks and five strikeouts.
WA had seven hits in the game with two each coming from Yates and Rone. Ben Caperton drove in three of the runs and had a double.
The Pats (5-4) have another loaded week this week. After playing Indianola on the road Monday night, the team hosted Columbus Christian on Tuesday, traveled to Ethel on Thursday and play at home against Bayou Academy on Saturday at 6 p.m.
“We’ll see how we respond this week. I feel like we’ll step back in and respond,” Smith said before the Indianola win. “I scheduled these teams because they’ve got guys that can get up there and throw it and we need to see it.”
