In more than 30 years in the coaching profession, Charlie Smith hasn’t seen many starts like he has with his first Winston Academy baseball team.
The longtime Louisville High School coach had many years begin with a loss or two and he had a few where his team went on a winning streak to open things up. This year’s Patriot team is giving him one of those great starts.
WA has worked through some early injuries, some youth and most certainly some weather issues to get to 7-0 in the first three weeks of the year. This past week saw them have to cancel two ball games at the beginning of the week but they were able to get in two at the tail end beating Water Valley and Winona High School in the Spring Break Tournament at Winona on Saturday.
There were some obvious things that Smith wants cleaned up, but he’ll otherwise take two more wins.
“We played well at times. I thought we did a lot of things well offensively, but we didn’t play good defense either ball game,” Smith said. “We have a really good defensive club, but I just think nine days off from playing contributed to that. We went to get something to eat after the game and there wasn’t a lot said because they were so tired. We were happy to get two wins though.”
Five of the first seven games have been against competition from the Mississippi High School Activities Association as the Patriots have challenged teams from Class 1A, 2A and 3A. They had two 3A competitors in which to test their skills on Saturday beginning with Water Valley.
WA got hit in the mouth right off of the bat in game one as the Blue Devils hit a grand slam in the first inning after Bryce Waggoner saw his defense let him down with a couple of errors then a hit set up the grand slam. It would total to be just one earned run, but the Patriots were down 4-0 on the scoreboard.
As they have done many times in the early going this year, they responded. In the bottom of the first, WA put up 11 runs and nearly batted around twice in the order to get that lead back for good. They surrendered a run in each of the third and fourth innings but won the game 13-6 in just four frames due to a time limit.
“Water Valley had a good baseball team. You’ve got to have live reps and be ready to play and we’ve got to be more focused than we were,” Smith said. “When you rebound like we did, I’m proud of them for that. We’ve got to look at some things and adjust.”
The Patriots offense had eight hits in those four innings and had just two players with two or more hits as freshman Spencer Wilson went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and senior shortstop Noah Dempsey was 2-for-2 with two RBIs as well. Brian Woodward, and Hunter Gregory also finished with a couple of RBIs to their credit.
On the mound, Smith was able to throw a pitcher an inning as Dempsey, Hayze Gregory and Josh McGinnis followed up Waggoner. They scattered five hits between them and no earned runs.
In game two against host Winona, the Patriots again got in a hole with a 1-0 deficit in the first inning but worked itself right back out of it. WA had a two-run second inning and scored five runs in the third to get some separation. Winona got two runs back in the fifth inning but the Patriots answered for two more runs and won 9-3 as time limit again came into play in the tournament setting.
Aiden Fancher, Woodward and McGinnis all had two hits in the win with Woodward driving in three runs and earning a double. Wilson drove in two more runs on a hit. Wilson also got the win on the mound as he threw 2.0 scoreless innings with two strikeouts and two hits allowed.
“We played a lot better the second ball game defensively and we pitched a lot better,” Smith said of the Winona game. “All in all, it was a long day, especially when you haven’t played in nine days.”
McGinnis is leading the regular starters with his .545 average having pounded out 12 hits in just 22 at bats with nine RBI. Wilson is batting .529 with 10 RBI and two doubles, Hunter Gregory has a .421 average as does Dempsey and Waggoner is leading the team with 11 RBI on the year with a .360 average.
Smith is trying to find consistency and reliability with his young pitchers and has found it with players like McGinnis and Wilson. The two have pitched in five of the seven games so far throwing 7.1 innings each with just one earned run surrendered by McGinnis and two by Wilson. They’ve combined to strike out 12 batters.
“It makes it so hard with three district games this week,” Smith said. “We don’t have three guys that we feel like we can run out there and throw six or seven innings. We’ve got a couple of kids with tendinitis right now so we have to manage it. We’ve got five varsity games this week so we’re going to have to work our way through it.”
They’ll need all hands on deck for the coming week as the ringer begins again for the Patriots as the fields begin to dry and rain has subsided for a few days.
The Pats started District 2-AAA play on Tuesday when they hosted Canton Academy for a double header and they go to Canton on Thursday for one varsity game at 6 p.m. with the junior varsity playing at 4 p.m. They’ll also play East Rankin and Kemper Academy on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.
Winston Academy looking for
success in track and field
By Robbie Faulk
Winston County Journal
Winston Academy’s basketball coaches are trading the court for the track this spring as they look to carry some momentum from successful seasons on the hardwood to track and field.
Making the transition along with them will be some of their athletes as well as the Patriots put their talent to the test this season. It begins on Wednesday with events at Washington School.
Boys coach Justin Childs will have 18 athletes competing in junior high and high school led by Evan Willis who last year qualified for the 300 meter hurdles at the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools overall championships and he won the District 2-AAA title in that event. Cole Ellinburg is coming off of a district championship as well in the 800 meter run and qualified for the state tournament.
On the girls side of things, Moe Reed’s star basketball players can compete at a high level on the track as well. Senior Madelyn Bright is one of the state’s top track and field athletes having won the state title in the high jump last year. She has signed with Meridian Community College to run track so she’s looking to go out in style during her senior year.
District basketball Player of the Year Lilly Sisson was a district champion in the discus and will compete again in that event this year.
“We have a lot of experience in the field events on both sides but a lot of our young athletes are running track,” Childs said. “One thing they all have is the desire to come out every day and work had and compete. They enjoy what they’re doing and are excited about it all. The kids do a really good job.”
Next week, the Patriots will travel to Canton Academy to continue their season.
