By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CENTRE – It remains to be seen what happens the remainder of the Cherokee County Warriors’ baseball season, but they might just look back at Tuesday’s game against Highway 9 rival Piedmont as their turning point.
Behind what Warrior head coach Josh Decker called the most complete game they’ve played all season, Cherokee County claimed an 11-1 victory in six innings over the Class 3A, No. 1 Bulldogs on the Warriors’ senior night.
“We’ve been up and down, but as far as a complete game goes, with putting together a great game by Evan on the mound, clean baseball behind it, and with the bats at the plate, I feel like that’s the most complete win we’ve had, especially against a quality opponent like Piedmont is,” Decker said.
“That’s what we needed to boost us for the rest of the season, especially against Piedmont,” said nine-hole hitter Owen Jacoway, who went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer to left as part of a five-run bottom of the fourth inning. “We’ve been slow with the bats this season. Our coaches gave us a game plan and we were seeing the ball big today.
“We know we can play well. We know we can hit the ball. We’ve just got to put it all out there.”
Warrior lead off hitter Nate Black, who led the Warriors at the plate by going 3-for-3 with a walk and three RBIs, said the Warriors have “definitely been working toward this.”
“We took BP (batting practice) today for about two hours. Even yesterday we swung for about an hour and a half. We definitely came in ready to swing it,” he said. “That’s all we’ve really been working on, hitting hard barrels. Weak balls don’t do anything. You’ve got to hit it hard for something to happen.”
But it was Piedmont (12-4) that was hitting it hard early.
Senior starting pitcher Evan Hill gave up a solo home run to right field to Piedmont lead off batter Brenan Hurst. Hill allowed a couple of more hits in the inning before settling in to retire the side.
Hill then hit his groove and held the Bulldogs scoreless the rest of the game to pick up the win. He tossed six innings and allowed an earned run on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts.
“A lot of emotion goes into this game, but you just can’t let it get over your head,” Hill said. “It’s just one run, so we had plenty of opportunities to go in there and compete. The other guys behind me made the plays. You’ve just got to fill the zone up and work with them.
“This is definitely one of my best performances of the year. It means a lot. It’s my senior night and I wanted to go out and compete.”
The Warriors (7-9) tied the game at 1 in the bottom of the first. Black walked to lead things off and later scored on a ground out to short by Aiden Bobbitt.
Cherokee County extended its lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the second inning. Adam Griffith led off with a double to left and scored on Daniel Neyman’s infield single. Black later drove in Neyman on a single to center.
It remained a 3-1 Warrior lead until the bottom of the fourth. The Warriors sent 11 men to the plate and scored five runs. The big blows of the inning were Neyman’s RBI-double to left, Cayce Tittle’s RBI-single to left, then back-to-back home runs by Jacoway and Black.
Jacoway smacked a two-run shot to left to chase Piedmont starting pitcher Charlie Sparks, then Black blasted a solo shot to right against Bulldog reliever Ben Dempsey.
“Owen put a good swing on it. He had a good day in BP. The ball was flying off his bat well,” Decker said. “He’s starting to figure out his swing a little bit. He got all of that ball.
“One of the hardest things to do in baseball is hit after a bases-clearing home run, but Nate did a good job, stuck with his approach, got a pitch he liked, extended on it, and hit it the other way.”
The Warriors added another run in the bottom of the fifth on Black’s RBI-single to left. They loaded the bases in the sixth and walked it off with one out on Neyman’s fly ball that was misplayed in center field.
Eli Johnson doubled for Piedmont in the fifth. Carson Sanders, Cole Austin, and Alex Bass had the other Bulldog hits. Aliandre Wright drew a walk.
Sparks suffered the loss for Piedmont after tossing 3 1/3 innings. He allowed seven runs on seven hits with two walks and no strikeouts.
The two teams do battle again on Thursday at Piedmont beginning at 4:30 p.m.
