By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director

SPRING GARDEN – Something Spring Garden baseball coach Cole Murphy has made a point of emphasis with the Panthers at practice is not just competing to get ahead and then put it on cruise control.

Games like the Class 1A, Area 13 opener against Gaylesville on Tuesday were his case and point.

The Panthers got out to an early two-run lead, but the Trojans put together a five-run top of the third to take the lead.

After Murphy met with the Panthers before the bottom half of the third, they responded.

Third baseman Braxton Haney went 2-for-3 with a walk and drove in three runs, including a two-run single to left as part of a six-run fourth in the Panthers’ 10-5 victory.

“Our boys sports are doing really well right now, but when we get to that big game, we can’t quite finish it,” Murphy said. “We’ve been hitting the weight room. Coach (Jason) Howard has been on them, Coach (Barrett) Ragsdale, Coach (Levi) Hatcher, all of us coaches. We’ve got to get to that point. When we get ahead, we stay at that level.”

Haney helped make sure the Panthers did.

“Braxton did a great job,” Murphy said. “This whole year he’s been wanting to hit the ball so hard. I think that’s just been why he’s been struggling. That’s something we’ve been working on. I told him it’s perfectly fine to want to hit the ball that much, but when you get in that box, you’ve got to relax a little bit and just have some confidence, know you’re going to hit the ball. He’s been doing a lot better at practice, and he brought it to the game today.

“That’s what we needed to give us a little bit of energy. I thought he did a great job stepping up with his bat.”

The Panthers (4-2) got off to a good start in the bottom of the first inning, taking a 2-0 lead on RBI-singles by pitcher Reece Winstead and Haney.

It remained 2-0 until the top of the third when Gaylesville (9-5) sent eight men to the plate and scored five runs to take a 5-2 lead. The big blow of the inning came off the bat of left fielder Tanner Eads.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Eads smacked a three-run double to left. Eads was caught stealing third for the final out of the inning.

Base-running blunders were the Trojans’ Achilles heel in the game. They had three runners get caught stealing and another thrown out for leaning too far off first base for a double play in the game.

“We made a few horrible base-running decisions there,” Gaylesville coach Kolby Brannon said. “I let them run freely and tell them to be smart. I’ll take blame for giving them that freedom. We have done a good job this year of not doing dumb stuff on the bases, being aggressive and timing stuff up, but obviously this is a good ball club, and you’ve got to be extra smart.”

The Panthers scored a run in the bottom of the third to make it a 5-3 contest, but then regained the lead for good after sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring six runs. In addition to Haney’s two-run single, center fielder Cam Welsh got the inning going for the Panthers with a run-scoring single to center. Catcher Connor Bates delivered a bloop single to left center to score another run, followed by a two-run bloop single to center from first baseman Jake Welsh.

An inning later, Panther leadoff batter Chapel Pope had a bloop single and scored when Reece followed with an infield single for the final.

“It doesn’t have to be a line drive or a home run. If you get two strikes on you, just poke it over the second baseman’s or shortstop’s head,” Murphy said. “That’s moving people around and that’s perfectly fine. We’ve really been putting the ball in the air a little more than I like. That’s something we’ve practiced on and we brought it today.”

Winstead earned the win for the Panthers. He scattered five hits and four walks in six innings with seven strikeouts before giving way to reliever Hayes Garmon, who worked a scoreless seventh with a pair of strikeouts.

Winstead was also 3-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs.

“I felt like I could start Reece, and if things were going good, let him ride,” Murphy said. “I trust Reece. He does a great job on the mound. He’s had two bad innings this year, one against Sand Rock in the county tournament and one tonight, but he responded well.

“That’s the thing with most of our kids. They get in a tight spot and you can challenge them and they’re going to respond. That was pretty much the whole game today. They came out and put a couple of balls in play. We made some plays. We went up. They found ways to score some runs. Reece walked a few, and they hit a couple. We were down 5-2, so that’s huge being able to come back from that and respond, settle down and compete at the level we want to be at.”

Pope, Bates and Clayton Sadler belted a pair of hits for the Panthers. Cam Welsh singled and walked twice. Zane Edwards finished with a single.

Eads, Kuper Bradley, JJ Yarbrough, Hunter Allmond and Bradlee Smith each had a hit for the Trojans.

Collin Hendon suffered the loss after working four innings before giving way to Kuper Bradley.

The two teams finish their series on Thursday at Gaylesville beginning at 4:30 p.m.

“I think today we’ve kind of proven we’re not Gaylesville of old. We’re here to compete,” Brannon said. “One or two calls that one inning they score all their runs, it’s a whole different ball game. We feel like we’ve got a chance. We always feel that way with the guys we’re putting out there right now. We’ve played well so far this year.”