One night after being shutout in its first District 14 game of the season, South Warren flipped the script on Tuesday against Warren East.
Using an all-around attack — especially on the offensive end — the Spartans (4-5 overall, 1-1 District 14) racked up 13 hits and bounced back with a dominating 16-4 win over the Raiders (5-4, 1-1) at Warren Central High School.
“We’ve been swinging it well all year long for the most part,” South Warren coach Chris Gage said. “Good pitching will stop good hitting, and Ryan Hawks shut us down yesterday. We got back to swinging it pretty well today.”
South Warren had seven different players finish with hits as Sam Gage led the way with a 4-for-5 showing to go along with three runs scored an an RBI. Just behind Gage, Hunter Evans went 2-for-4 with two RBI and Tyler Martin added a pair of hits.
Zack Beckner started on the mound for the Spartans and recorded five strikeouts while allowing six hits and four runs in six innings pitched. In their loss, the Raiders were led by Ryan Hawks’ 3-for-3, RBI showing while Ty Stringfield finished with two hits.
“Hitting the ball,” Evans said when asked what was the biggest difference tonight. “We had two hits last night and we hit all the way up the lineup (tonight). That was probably the biggest difference — and playing better defense.”
The Spartans got going early, scoring two quick runs on Evans’ two-run home run in the top of the first inning. After Gage led off with a single, the WKU signee Evans followed up in a big way with his shot over the left field wall.
“We made the plays today,” Gage said. “Maybe they carried a little frustration out from the plate to the field yesterday because we couldn’t field it yesterday. Today, much better.”
Warren East fought right back in the bottom half of the inning, scoring three runs to trail just 4-3 after one. Stringfield singled to lead off before Hawks was walked to set up Dakota Basham. Taking advantage of the situation, Basham — a power hitter — sent a pitch over the wall to score himself along with his two teammates to make it a whole new ballgame.
South Warren didn’t go away.
“That’s what you want. We’ve had teams in the past get a four-run lead and sit on it, and that let’s the other team hang around,” said Gage. “Zack gave us a great outing today where he was in trouble in the first inning, righted the ship and gave us the innings we need. Zack really helped our pitching depth by going the long way today.”
After scoring a run in the third, the Spartans unloaded for four more in the ensuing frame. Gage singled to score AJ Isable before Beckner scored on a fielder’s choice to make it 7-3. Just after Beckner crossed the plate, Clay Nohel followed with a two-run single to push South’s advantage to 9-3 and give it plenty of momentum.
Hawks sent a solo homer over the left field wall to bring East to within 9-4, but that’s as close as it would get, as South Warren went on to add seven more runs in the seventh to seal it and even the series.
“Just try not to do too much,” said Evans of the approach entering Thursday. “Just try not to hit home runs every time and stay back and let it come to us and hit it, play good defense and throw strikes. That’s basically what we’ve learned.”
South Warren and Warren East will conclude their three-game series with a rubber match at 5 p.m. Thursday at South Warren High School.
“We’re not an experienced group. We’ve had this same story before,” Warren East coach Wes Sanford said. “We’re trying to learn from it. We’ve gotta talk about it and figure it out what’s going on. We gave them a lot of runs tonight. We gave them a lot. We made like six errors.
“Pitching and defense are gonna win our ball games. We’ve gotta keep preaching it.”
–Senior writer Tyler Mansfield can be reached at mansfield.sportingtimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @TMansfieldST.–
