Having ended Spring Break on a sour note against Tri-County Academy, Winston Academy was looking to come out firing on all cylinders as district play began.
Playing Leake Academy in three games over the course of the week that was going to be tough, but the Patriots were up to the challenge. WA took two games at home around a loss on the road and got a series win to start the tough district slate on the right foot.
WA started the week on Monday in total control of the Rebels. The Pats came out and scored two runs in the first and five in the second to jump out to a big lead that they wouldn’t lose on the way to a 12-2 run-rule win in six innings. The closest that Leake got in the game after the Winston lead blew up to seven was a two-run third when the Rebels got the only runs they scored all game.
No one on the Patriot team had more than one hit but Aiden Fancher came through with three RBI and also walked three times. Brylee Wall drove in three runs on a hit as well and Braxton Rone had two RBI. Jett Joiner walked three times as the Patriots had 12 free bags on walks.
Dalton Powell had a strong start on the mound throwing all 6.0 innings, giving up just two hits and one walk and he surrendered just one earned run. Powell struck out five.
After Leake evened up the series with a 9-4 win on Thursday night in Madden, the Pats got a chance to host a decisive game three in Louisville on Friday. The Patriots dug themselves in a 3-0 hole only to fight out of it, force extra innings and set the stage for Trey Williamson’s exciting walk off home run to give the team a 4-3 victory in nine frames.
“We played really well on Friday. We had one bad inning where we walked a guy and had two errors that turned into a two-run inning,” coach Charlie Smith said. “But we pitched really well. It was exciting to end on the walk off.”
It was definitely a great showing from the pitcher Wall. The East Central Community College signee threw 8.0 innings, scattered four hits, two earned runs, three walks and seven strikeouts. The two runs he surrendered came in the second and third innings and Wall would then throw five-straight scoreless innings. Fancher came in during the ninth inning and gave up just a hit in a scoreless inning.
Time was running out for the Patriots in the game trailing 3-0 before they finally got two runs in the fifth inning. WA kept the game alive with another run in the seventh to tie it and send it to extra innings before giving Williamson his shot to walk it off in front of the home crowd.
Williamson was the hero of the game and finished 2-for-4 with two RBI, but Rone had the best game of all as he went a perfect 4-for-4 with two doubles. Hayze Gregory finished 2-for-4 in the game.
The wins improved WA to 12-6 on the season and 2-1 in district play. It has the Pats off toa great start but more challenges ahead this week. On Tuesday, WA was set to travel to Lamar. They will host Lamar on Thursday at 6 p.m. before heading back towards Meridian on Friday for game three of that series.
Smith wants to see his team begin to pick it up at the plate. The home run from Williamson is one way to do it, but he needs to see it from all nine players.
“We’ve got to swing the bats the way we did a year ago,” Smith said. “We moved some kids around and changed the lineup some this week but we’ve got to get everybody going at the same time and go from there,” Smith said. “I watch Mississippi State a bunch and we seem to have the same issue as them out of the bullpen and who is going to be consistent. We’re trying to stay the course.”
