WC shuts out Indians in 7-AAA opener

Over the next month and a half, the White County Warriors will play 18 games to determine the four teams that will represent Region 7-AAA in the Class AAA state tournament.

The Warriors (6-3) opened region play Monday, shutting out Lumpkin County 5-0 in the first game of a three-game series with the Indians this week. The two teams met in Dahlonega on Wednesday, and will wrap up the series Friday in Cleveland.

WCHS assistant coach Brett Westmoreland said getting off to a good start in region play is important, especially considering the Warriors opened the series on their home field.

“It's huge to get this first win,” Westmoreland said. “The first series is huge for everybody,” Westmoreland said. “We don't like to look ahead, but if you can put yourself in a good position going into some of those tough series, you can feel pretty good about where you can be at the end of the season. We don't want to look ahead to much, just take it game by game, and compete every day. I don't think there's any team in this league that will completely run away with it. You're going to see a lot of people close together at the finish line, so each series is important.”

The Warriors were coming off a 5-4 non-region loss last Friday to Chestatee, and wanted to get the ship righted in the series with the next door rival.

“That's what we've been preaching since last Friday,” Westmoreland said. “We told them we were 0-0 going into this game, and we needed to come out ready to play against a pretty good ball team. We wanted to get off to a 1-0 start and keep working from there.”

Starting pitcher Nate Bray, the Warriors' defense, and some timely hitting were the keys to the win.

Bray pitched a complete game shutout, allowing seven hits and three walks while striking out five.

Bray had to work out of trouble several times in the game, but always seem to make a pitch when he needed to, either getting a strikeout or a ground ball to end the Indians' scoring threats.

The Indians got a pair of runners on base in the first inning, but Bray got out the early jam with strikeout to end the inning. In the third inning, the Indians put runners at second and third with two outs, but Bray punched out the final batter of the inning to squelch the threat.

The Indians loaded the bases in the fifth inning, but Bray got an infield popup and a ground ball to Haynes to keep the Indians off the scoreboard.

In the sixth, centerfielder Rylee Higgins snagged a line drive and picked off a runner at first base for a double play to keep the Indians at bay, and then Bray finished things off getting a double play from Haynes and Daniels for the first two outs of the seventh inning, and completed the shut out by getting the final out on a routine fly ball to Jake Johnson in left field.

“I don't know if we could ask anything more of him,” Westmoreland said. “He came out and he got into a pretty tough situation in the first inning, but find a way to battle out of it. I kept telling (pitching) coach Stahl, 'we have to get somebody ready in the pen in case something happens, but he kept us in the ball game and we didn't have to (go to a relief pitcher).”

While Bray was getting things done on the mound, the Warriors scored four runs in the second inning and added one in the fifth to put the game away.

Dylan Sargent started the second inning with a walk, and one out later, Daniels singled to put runners at first and second. Blake Kelly delivered in a big spot, ripping a ball into the right field gap, for a 2-run double, scoring Ryan Fowler, a courtesy runner for Sargent, and Daniels for a 2-0 lead.

“That's what we preach offensively,” Westmoreland said. “Stick to it, stick to our approach, stick to the plan, and take what they give us. We're not a team that can bang the ball all over the ballpark, so we've got to have timely hits and take what they give us. Blake smashed a ball in the gap and got something jump started for us. Overall, I think we swung it pretty well; had a lot of quality at bats, and did a lot good things offensively.”

After a Higgins' walk, Johnson had a run-scoring bloop single to left field, scoring Kelley for a 3-0 lead. Haynes followed with sacrifice fly to deep center field, scoring Higgins for a 4-0 lead.

In the fifth inning, Haynes reached on an Indians' error and went to second on a wild pitch. Two batters later, Evan Chambers doubled in the left field to to score Haynes, pushing the lead to 5-0.

Chambers had two hits in the game, while Johnson, Higgins, Daniels, and Kelley each had one.

Last week, the Warriors split a pair of games with Johnson and Chestatee.

The Warriors posted a 6-0 extra inning win over Johnson, scoring six times in the top of the ninth inning to back open a pitching duel.

The WCHS duo Haynes and Bailee Patterson, and Johnson's Tristan Nguyen locked up in a pitching battle for most of the afternoon.

Nguyen, who is committed to play college baseball next year at Georgia State, was almost unhittable through the first eight innings. He allowed only two hits and one walk while striking out 14. Haynes matched Nguyen for the first five innings, allowing only a hit and a walk, while striking out a career-high 10. Patterson came on the sixth inning, and allowed four hits and two walk with seven strikeouts over the final four innings to pick up the win.

In the ninth inning, the Warriors used two hit, five walks, two errors and a sacrifice fly to blow the game open.

An error gave the Warriors the first run of the game, and Patterson delivered the second run with an RBI single. Daniels drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Caleb Reddy made it 4-0 with an RBI single. The final two runs scored on a bases loaded walk and an error.

Patterson finished the game with two hits, while Higgins, and Reddy had a hit each.

Last Friday, the Warriors dropped a close game at Chestatee as the War Eagles scored four runs in the first inning on the way to a 4-3 win.

Bray had two hits and drove in a run in the game, while Johnson, Haynes, Sargent, Daniels, and Kyler Mayo all had a hit, with Mayo driving in a pair of runs.

Reddy turned in a stellar pitching effort in relief, working the final 5.1 innings. He allowed no hits and only two base runners, one on a walk and one hit by a pitch, and struck out three.