It was a highly successful non-conference portion of the schedule for Winston Academy as the Patriots entered last week and the start of District 2-AAA play undefeated.
Winston knocked off five MHSAA teams during that stretch in what coach Charlie Smith believed to be a good test for his young team heading into conference play. With the first conference challenge against Canton Academy up last week in the form of three games, the undefeated streak would be no more, but the Patriots got better regardless.
It began with a double-header at Winston between the Panthers last Tuesday and in game one, the Pats ran into a buzz saw as Canton did damage early as they went up 7-0 in the first four innings.
After WA cut it to 7-3, Canton added five runs in the fifth to pull away and won the game 13-4. Jody McCorkle led the team with two hits in the game and Aiden Fancher had two RBI on a hit.
The home team was not planning on going down without a fight in game two and fight they would. Canton scored nine runs in the first two innings of the game and led 9-5 but WA just kept chipping away. They scored a run in the third and two more in the fifth to close it to 9-8 before they would really get things going.
In the fifth inning, WA put seven runs on the board to get some distance and would ultimately take a 17-12 win to even the season series and split the double-header. They scored in every inning of the ball game.
Josh Mcginnis was 3-for-5 at the plate with a game-high four RBI. Hunter Gregory went 3-for-5 as well with three more RBI and Hayze Gregory, Spencer Wilson and McCorkle all had two hits apiece. Brian Woodward and Wilson had two RBI each.
Four Patriots combined to work the ball game on the mound with 3.0 innings coming from Bryce Waggoner and 2.0 from Fancher who struck out three batters and walked four but gave up just an earned run.
It didn’t take long for the rubber match between the two. Winston went up Highway 25 to Canton to play the Panthers again on Thursday and again had to come from behind. Canton got out to a 5-1 lead after two innings before the Pats exploded offensively again pouring in 10 runs in the fourth inning and Canton never recovered in a 12-7 victory for WA.
Wilson pitched 3.2 innings and gave up three hits and two runs with three strikeouts. Fancher went 1.1 innings out of the bullpen, gave up two hits and no runs and struck out three batters as well.
At the plate, Hunter Gregory, Noah Dempsey, Mcginnis, Fancher and Woodward all had two hits. Dempsey had two triples in the game and four RBI.
The victory pushed the Patriots to 2-1 in district play earlier and gave them more momentum into the weekend. They played East Rankin and Kemper Academy on Saturday and pulled out 5-4 and 12-0 wins respectively.
Now WA (11-1) has to wait until Friday to hit the diamond again. They were scheduled to play East Webster at home on Monday but the game was rained out. They travel to Oak Hill Friday and will play after the junior varsity game at 3:30 p.m.
They follow that up with a double-header at Indianola Academy on Saturday as they take on Pillow Academy at 1:30 p.m. and Indianola at 4 p.m.
