CA baseball picks up first region win of season

Published 9:19 am Thursday, March 15, 2018

DAMASCUS- The Crisp Academy Wildcats evened up their overall record at 2-2 (1-1 in region play) with a road region win over the Southwest Georgia Academy Warriors on Tuesday afternoon.

Spencer Stubbs got the start on the mound for the Wildcats and put in a solid performance to get the win. He also helped himself out with the bat by blasting a second inning solo homerun to deep right center field, which gave Crisp Academy the first run of the game.

The Wildcats added a run in the third inning after a couple of SGA errors allowed Aaron Titshaw to score. The Warriors threatened in the bottom half of the third inning after a leadoff walk and a two-out hit gave them a couple of runners on, but a ground ball to third baseman, Zach Pate, ended the inning with the 2-0 lead still intact for the Wildcats.

Crisp added another run in the top of the fourth inning to increase the lead out to 3-0. Pate got a two-out single to shallow right field and Garrett Gravitt then popped a ball up on the infield that ended up falling to give CA runners at first and third with two outs. Julian Floyd came up to bat next and pushed the run across the plate with a popup that fell between two Warriors in shallow left field.

SGA came up with an opportunity to get back in the game in the bottom of the fourth after loading the bases with no one out, but the Crisp Academy infielders came up with some big defensive plays to help get Stubbs out of the jam. The Warriors got the first three batters of the inning aboard with a single to right, a walk, and then a hit by pitch. The fourth batter of the inning hit a ground ball to first and the Wildcats were able to get the first out of the inning at home. Crisp was then able to turn a 4-6-3 double play to send the game to the top of the fifth, where they added to the 3-0 lead.

Baylor Pless led off the inning with a double to left field, and Blake Odom followed up with a double that sent Pless in to score. Stubbs came up two batters later and put the ball in play, which led to another SGA error that allowed Odom to score. The Warriors were able to get the next two outs shortly after, but the Wildcats led 5-0 entering the bottom of the fifth.

Pless came in to pitch for CA for the remainder of the game and came up with a couple of stress free innings in the fifth and the sixth. SGA got a couple of runners on in the seventh inning in an attempt to get some runs on the board, but the Wildcats were able to get out of the jam to keep the shutout intact. Crisp Academy won 5-0 to pick up the road region victory.

Stubbs got the win after pitching four shutout innings, giving up just three hits, two walks, and two batters hit by pitch, while recording two strikeouts. Pless pitched the final three innings in the game and gave up just one hit, one walk, one batter hit by pitch and two strikeouts.

The Wildcats travel to Americus today to play Southland at 4:30, and then they go on the road tomorrow for their next region game at Terrell Academy.