Pitcher Elijah Tucker fields the grounder and throws to shortstop Cameron Cooper to get the fielder’s choice out at second. (Photo/Martha Ladd)
WINNSBORO – The Richard Winn Academy Eagles ran their baseball record to 6-2 Tuesday night, capturing their first region win with an 8-3 schooling of Newberry Academy. The win comes in the wake of last Friday’s slugfest wherein the Eagles battered Northside Christian, 15-5 in 5 innings.
Elijah Tucker earned the win in Tuesday night’s battle of the Eagles, hurling 5 scoreless innings while striking out three, giving up a pair of hits and surrendering five walks. Jacob Steele closed things out for RWA, striking out four, walking one while giving up two hits and 3 unearned runs.
Cameron Cooper ignited the RWA offense, going 3-for-4 at the plate with a pair of two-baggers and 3 RBIs while scoring twice. Tucker and Conrad Sharpe were each 1-for-2, with Sharpe getting plunked twice, scoring twice and driving in a run. Tucker’s effort produced a 2 RBI double. Coker Gilbert, Christian Christianson and Gunnar Hensley were each 1-for-3 with Gilbert stroking a double and Hensley driving in 2 runs.
The Eagles spread the hits around in last Friday’s bruising of Northside. Cooper and Tucker went 2-for-3, with Cooper lacing a pair of doubles, driving in 2 runs and coming around to touch the plate three times. Tucker also banged out a pair of doubles, scoring twice and driving in a run. John Coleman and Mitchell Gibbons each went 2-for-2, with Coleman scoring twice and driving in a run and Gibbons driving in a pair. Gilbert and Hunter Glisson went 1-for-2 each with Gilbert belting 2 RBIs and Glisson providing the game-winning walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the fifth. Sharpe was 1-for-3 at the plate with a double, and Tyler Douglas and Jonathan Lewis were each 1-for-1. Lewis produced a pair of RBIs, with Douglas driving in one. Matt Taylor was also 1-for-3 with a triple and a run scored.
In all, the Eagles hammered out 14 hits, stranding nine runners on the night.
Gibbons got the win for the Eagles, giving up just one run on one hit through 4 innings of work. Gibbons struck out five Crusaders while walking four. Lewis mopped up, pitching a hitless fifth, yet giving up 4 unearned runs. Lewis’s three walks came back to haunt him as the Eagle defense slipped a gear behind him.
The Eagles continue region play Friday at Laurens, travel to Wardlaw Saturday for a non-region contest, then return to Winnsboro for Fairfield Central’s spring break tournament beginning Monday.
