Several days worth of rain wasn’t enough to keep the Winston Academy Patriots from throwing out the first pitch of the high school baseball season.
Second-year head coach Charlie Smith was able to get his team on the field to start things off last Thursday as they went head to head with a tough Madison-Ridgeland team at home. WA hung with the other Patriots but weren’t able to put up enough run production as they lost 7-2.
The offense wasn’t the biggest issue in the game as WA spoiled a pretty good pitching performance from three of their hurlers with miscues on defense. Six errors contributed to the loss as it was otherwise a solid showing from senior Josh Mcginnis, freshman Aiden Harper and sophomore Brylee Wall. The three combined to surrender just four hits and two runs while striking out seven batters.
MRA scored at least a run in each of the first four innings and they added two more in the seventh to put WA away for good. WA scratched across a run in the fifth and seventh on just two hits. Hunter Gregory and Aiden Fancher provided the only two hits in the game as Fancher smacked a double off the wall and drove in the team’s only RBI on the night.
WA also played a game at the Sports Force Park in Vicksburg on Monday when they took on Central Hinds. More errors haunted the Patriots as they had six in that game as well and added nine walks to the miscues as they dropped a 15-5 decision to fall to 0-2 on the year.
They were scheduled to play Pillow Academy in a double header on Tuesday and will play at MRA on Thursday at 6 p.m. with a game vs. Oak Hill Friday at 6.
