After a one-year absence, South Warren is headed back to both the District 14 championship and Region 4 Tournament.
The Spartans — the top-seeded team in this week’s District 14 Baseball Tournament — used a solid all-around performance to earn a 2-0 shutout win over fourth-seeded Greenwood on Wednesday evening in a semifinal matchup at their own South Warren Ballpark.
“It’s a great feeling because that’s the most pressure-packed game of the year every year,” South Warren coach Chris Gage said. “It’s just tough when you know the other team so well. They’re a very well coached team with coach (Jason) Jaggers. It’s a tough game.”
South (23-11), which was eliminated by Warren East in last season’s semifinal round, finished with seven hits from seven different batters. Along with the offensive production, Tyler Martin pitched a one-hit shutout with six strikeouts in six innings of work.
“My fastball and change-up were working,” Martin said. “Getting ground balls and fly balls — easy outs. Didn’t have to work late in the count.”
The Spartans scored first in the second inning on an RBI triple from Trent Rice and pushed their lead to 2-0 with a Jacob Lacey RBI single two innings later.
Titus Thornhill recorded the only hit of the day for Greenwood, while Nate Cunningham tossed five strikeouts with seven hits and two runs in a complete-game fashion.
“It’s a classic 14th District Tournament game,” Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers said. “It’s unfortunate somebody’s gotta lose. I thought our kids played hard. I’m super, super proud of ‘em. I thought Nate was Nate, man. What stinks the most is that I don’t get to have Nate another game. I’m super proud of him.”
With South Warren’s win, it’ll now meet the winner of No. 2 Bowling Green and No. 3 Warren East in Thursday’s championship at 6 p.m.
After an inning and a half of scoreless baseball, South Warren was the first to breakthrough in the bottom of the second.
Following Lacey reaching on a fielder’s choice, Rice sent a ball into right centerfield to score his predecessor all the way from the first base and gave the Spartans a 1-0 lead after two complete innings.
“We’ve told them that all nine guys have to be on the same page,” Gage said. “I’m not sure they were because we had some guys taking big cuts. In bigger games, people will do that. They’ll start trying to do too much. A lot of the guys at the bottom of the lineup really stayed with the game plan and took easy cuts.”
An RBI single from Lacey two frames later doubled South Warren’s advantage.
Just after Mason Day singled into left and then advanced to second on an error, Lacey stepped up to the plate and delivered a hit of his own into the same area. Just as the ball was dropping, Day ran home from second and put the Spartans up 2-0 entering the fifth.
Greenwood threatened in the top of the seventh as Mac Ausbrooks reached on an error and later attempted to score while another batter made contact, but Ausbrooks was tagged out at home to end the Gators’ chance.
“We had a lot of opportunities that just didn’t fall,” Jaggers said. “We hit some balls hard early … they didn’t fall. They made the plays. They get a guy on and they’re able to score one through — and that’s what happens. We didn’t do enough.”
The Gators end their 2018 campaign with an overall record of 20-14.
“It’s a huge win,” Martin said. To know we’re going to region now, it’s a great feeling. We wanted to make it back.”
–Senior writer Tyler Mansfield can be reached at mansfield.sportingtimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @TMansfieldST.–
