SPRING GARDEN – Spring Garden junior pitcher Cam Welsh got off to a rocky start against Class 2A, Area 12 rival and defending state baseball champion Westbrook Christian on Monday.

Warrior leadoff batter Hugh Windle reached on an error, then second baseman Dalton Grace walked, bringing starting pitcher Brodie Self to the plate with no outs.

Self sent a towering shot to left field to give the Warriors an early three-run lead, but Welsh didn’t let it faze him.

Welsh settled in to retire the side in the first and got Westbrook to go 1-2-3 in the second. He did allow another run in the third, but finished the game with nine of his 10 strikeouts. The Panther bats finally got going in the bottom of the fifth in Spring Garden’s 12-4 victory.

“The first inning was rough, but I don’t think anybody got flustered,” Welsh said. “We know how good we can be. It was a shaky start, but we just stayed calm and took care of business after that.

“For me, a lot of that is knowing my defense is going to make plays behind me. They got stronger through the game with me. I have a tendency to do that occasionally, and thankfully it happened again tonight.”

Spring Garden first-year coach Cole Murphy took the blame for the Panthers’ slow start early. He said he was uptight to begin his first area game and his players sensed that.

“(Andrew) Bates come up and told me ‘Coach, you’re too tight. You’ve got us all too tight,’” Murphy said. “I was like ‘You know what? You’re right.’ I calmed down, which calmed us down, then we got in our rhythm and did our thing. We were able to come back and do really well. We were down 4-0 in the fifth, then put 12 up. We really started hitting the ball well, and Cam did a great job on the mound.

“He pitched amazing. He didn’t lose his head. He didn’t get frustrated at the beginning when we started slow. When you have an error on the first batter, then you walk the second one, then a passed ball and they’re at second and third, then the guy hits a home run, that’s big. That can get in a pitcher’s head, but Cam did a good job of keeping his head, keeping his confidence, staying calm and doing his job.”

Welsh surrendered just three hits and four walks in the game on 114 pitches for the Panthers (8-1, 1-0). He got stronger as the game went along.

“The longer it went, the better he did,” Murphy said. “He was getting close to his pitch count, but he did a great job of making them make contact and ended the game.”

Speaking of making contact, the Panther bats finally did that fifth. They put together three runs on four hits to chase Self from the game in favor of Clark Hodnett.

An inning later against Hodnett, the Panthers pounced, sending 14 batters to the plate and scoring nine runs.

Five Panther players earned walks in the inning. Nine-hole batter Andrew Floyd delivered a two-run single to left center, leadoff batter Chaz Pope popped a two-run double to left center, and Welsh delivered a bloop double for the big hits of the inning.

“Everybody being patient and waiting on their pitch, that was huge,” Welsh said. “They’ve got some good pitchers on their staff. They call some good pitches. They know how to mix it up right, so waiting on your pitch was huge. I felt like that kept us in the ball game.”

“We knew if we waited, we were going to get our pitch,” Murphy said. “Most of the kids, at least one at-bat, got their pitch and made a great hit. We had a bunch of kids with RBIs tonight, which was huge. We did a really good job of hitting. Our bats are coming around as a team.”

Chaz Pope went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Chapel Pope was also 2-for-4 with a walk. Welsh went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Gavin Bass was 2-for-2 with a double and a walk. Landon Gowens added a pair of singles and a walk. Connor Bates collected a single, was hit by a pitch and walked. Reece Winstead had a pair of bunt hits and reached on an error. Floyd finished 1-for-4 at the plate.

Games two and three of the series are Thursday in Rainbow City.

“It’s definitely huge (to get game one),” Murphy said. “They’re the returning champs, so getting game one is going to give us some momentum going into game two. We pitched Cam today because Landon pitched in the county tournament, so we’ve got Landon and Denver (Jarrett) for games two and three, with Reece and the rest of the bullpen for game three if needed.”