WINNSBORO (April 13, 2016) – It was a showdown of Eagles when Newberry Academy visited Richard Winn on a windy April 8 night. This time it was the Eagles of Richard Winn who came away with the 11-6 win over their fellow SCISA region opponent.
“It’s been a really good week,” Richard Winn head coach Paul Brigman said. “We played yesterday and we defeated King, which is a region win, followed it today up with another big region win, and it’s good to end the week like that. It’s been a really positive week for the team, and we feel like we’re starting to gel.”
Both teams shared a pair of errors in the first inning, and those errors turned out to be enough for each to score a single run.
Newberry’s leadoff man Bennett Connolly got on thanks to another Richard Winn error, but the bottom of the order was unable to push the runner home. Then Newberry imploded in the bottom half of the second.
Gunnar Hensley began Richard Winn’s second inning barrage with a triple, and came home to score off the bat of Peyton Gilbert. Mental mistakes hurt Newberry almost as much as Richard Winn’s bats.
“It’s huge for us to be able to score when we get those opportunities,” Brigman said on the errors. “Things like passed balls that are going to happen during the course of the game, it’s critical that we be able to score on every chance that we get whether it’s from defensive errors or us putting the ball in play.”
Five of Newberry’s 11 errors came in the bottom of the second, and it cost the team four runs. But they were far from out of the weeds.
Thanks to Daniel Bannister and his two RBIs, Newberry notched a three-run third inning off of Richard Winn starter Jacob Steele, to bring themselves back within one. Newberry’s starting pitcher Jimmy Franklin temporarily composed himself after the debacle in the second, and retired the side in order to finish off the third.
Josh Sawyer and Noah Moody picked up a couple of singles for Newberry in the fourth, but Steele silenced the rally to keep a grasp on the razor-thin one-run lead. John Coleman also hit a single in the fourth, but like Newberry, RWA could not move the scoreboard.
Steele got the ground-ball working for three straight outs to end Newberry’s half of the fifth, and his offense rewarded him in the bottom of the inning with six more runs.
It was another mistake ridden inning for Newberry as they added four more errors to their overall total. By the end of the night they wound up having more errors than hits.
Hensley picked up his second double, Bryant Carvalho added a pivotal run with his RBI-double and John Lewis padded the lead with a two-RBI single.
“Gunnar Hensley had a really big hit,” Brigman said. “He’s one of our senior leaders, he had a double. Carvalho also hit the ball really well tonight. Being able to have some power guys in the lineup, some guys that are starting to hit the ball with power and to all fields, has been really big for us.”
Newberry saw a very manageable one-run deficit transform into a seven-run mountain. To make things worse, Steele had found his zone.
He struck out Newberry’s Shield Sawyer, Noah Moody and Jamal Galman consecutively. Between the fourth and sixth inning, Steele sat down seven batters in a row.
“Jacob Steele has been one of our top two workhorses, and been one of our top guys. He has a really low ERA this year and we felt good going into the game with him,” Brigman said.
Richard Winn could not provide any additional run support in the sixth, but it would not be needed. Newberry mustered up a couple of runs to make the score look a bit more respectable, but the rally fell well short.
NA: 1-0-3-0-0-0-2- 6-6-11
RW: 1-4-0-0-6-0-X- 11-9-7
Pitching: RW- Jacob Steele (W), 7IP, 6H, 6R, 4ER, 2BB, 4K, 2HB. NA- Jimmy Franklin (L), 4IP, 9H, 10R, 4ER, 1BB, 2K, 4WP. M. Cole, 1IP, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 1K, 2WP.
Hitting: 3B- Gunnar Hensley (RW). 2B- G. Hensley, B. Carvalho (RW). RBI- Peyton Gilbert, B. Carvalho, J. Lewis (RW); Daniel Bannister (2), M. Cole (NA).