After four-straight losses, Charlie Smith needed his team to find a new gear.
The Pats were swept in a series against rival Leake Academy, but WA regrouped against Lamar School earning a series win and were a couple runs away from sweeping that. That was followed up last week by a two-game sweep of Park Place Christian Academy to get the team to .500 in district play.
“We’re playing way better than we did against Leake. We really cut down on defensive mistakes on the infield,” Smith said. “The only game we’ve lost was when we made some costly mistakes against Lamar in a 5-4 loss. It was hard to ever get it going that night. We’re starting to learn to win some ball games close and that’s a big thing for us. If we can continually get better up the middle on defense, we’ll be alright.”
In the home and home matchup with the Crusaders, the Pats dominated in two different ways during the week. The first game on the road was won with pitching and defense. A tough place to hit at Park Place, WA had to rely on its ace to carry them until they could break through in a late 3-1 victory.
Bryson Wright has been exceptional this year and Monday afternoon was no exception. He threw 7.0 innings, gave up just three hits, one run, one walk and struck out a pair in the victory.
It was much-needed as the team trailed 1-0 in the fourth and wouldn’t break through until the sixth inning when three runs came across. It was a tough offensive day with just five hits combined for the Pats and Jett Joiner knocked in a run on a double, Hayze Gregory had another RBI and Reed Yates was the only player with two hits in the game.
“I’ve never played at a place like that where the wind blew in like that. It’s a wind tunnel off the interstate,” Smith said. “On Monday we really hit the ball well, but it just died out there. Late in the game we got it where we were just hitting it hard on the turf. Tuesday, we swung the bats really well.”
Playing at home, it was a much different atmosphere to hit for WA. The team pounded out 12 hits in five innings and blew the doors off the game in the third with four runs while getting nine more in the fourth as the Pats got a 14-2 run-rule win in five innings.
Four players had two hits with J.T. McGinnis, Joiner, Max Fulcher and Trey Williamson all having two base knocks. Williamson had four RBI in the game with a triple highlighting his evening. Joiner drove in three runs with another double and McGinnis had a home run with two RBI.
On the mound, Holder Tidwell had an inning pitched where he allowed just a walk and struck out the side. Yates gave up two hits and a run with a walk in an inning and Braxton Rone threw 3.0 innings, surrendered three hits, one run, three walks and struck out five.
With the win, WA has won four of the last five games and are now 15-7 on the season and 4-4 in the district. The team is currently third in the standings with two more series to go and things can change drastically for the better or the worse with still plenty of opportunities ahead.
This week is especially big as the Pats start a series on Tuesday with East Rankin at home. They were slated to play ERA in Pelahatchie on Thursday and will play them again at home on Friday at 6 p.m. WA is also hoping to make up a third game against Park Place on Saturday on the road after the game was cancelled due to weather last week.
With one of the best teams in the state on the way next week to close the regular season, WA needs a big week on the diamond.
“We’ve got four district games this week and that will tell us where we’re at going into the Simpson series,” Smith said. “East Rankin has been very up and down, but they lost 11 seniors. They’re probably very similar to us but their pitching hasn’t been panning out for them but they’re very young. He’s got two 8th graders that are going to be real special. For us, it’s a must-win series for the playoffs.”
