By RYAN WALKER
GASTON — When it rains in baseball, it pours. For Liberty Christian, it was a complete downpour and then some.
Southern Wells (4-17) drilled the Lions (7-17) 23-1 in the first round of the baseball sectional hosted by Wes-Del High School. The offensive onslaught produced 14 runs in the third inning for the Raiders and a total of 18 hits for the game.
A win may have been expected, as the Raiders won 14-3 in the regular season meeting in early April, but one of that caliber was not.
When asked, head coach Evan Huffman couldn’t believe the 14 runs in one inning occurrence Friday night.
“I’ve never been a part of one (high scoring inning like this), and definitely don’t think I’ve ever seen one with that many hits,” Huffman said after the game. “It’s good to be on the offensive side of that one.”
The game was practically done in four innings, as a giant blob of storm clouds hovered in the distance in left field and was heading toward Gaston. Southern Wells took the inning off and purposefully struck out, flailing at every pitch to speed up time. The umpires and coaches attempted to finish the fifth inning to have an officially completed game, but a gust of wind and a temperature drop forced the umpires to call the game completed before the bottom of the fourth inning. It’s unknown if Liberty Christian forfeited the game or not.
The zero spot in the fifth for the Raiders wasn’t the first, believe it or not. The team left the bases loaded and couldn’t take advantage of a pair of errors by the Lions. By the second inning, the bats warmed up and turned red hot.
Caleb Johnson plated Case Boxell to score the first of the 23 runs. An error aided the second, and Jakob Gearheart hit a single to score the third. With the bases loaded, Robby Freimuth walked for the four-run lead.
Then, down came the rain on offense.
A short recap of the inning had RBI extra-base hits from Landon Johnson and Wyatt Yoder. Hits with RBI included Freimuth, Boxell and Caleb Johnson. Outside of those runs, only three of the 14 were mistakes by the Lions, which means the Raiders earned every bit of it.
Huffman shared that he’s been implementing a new strategy at the plate by simplifying the count and hunting for fastballs. Friday night, the Raiders smashed a lot of fastballs.
“We talked a lot about the last few weeks about ambushing fastballs and getting the counts where the fastball is favorable — 2-0 counts, 3-1 counts, even 0-0, we’re looking to ambush fastballs,” Huffman said. “They really adjusted to that approach. Tonight was just the best example that we’ve had, really getting in fastball counts and taking advantage of that.”
Of the 18 hits, Both Johnson’s, Freimuth and Yoder had three-hit games. Gearheart had two. Caleb Johnson drove in four runs, while Landon Johnson, Freimuth and Yoder had three.
With the win, the Raiders will take the weekend off games before returning to Wes-Del and facing the hosting school on Monday. The Warriors (12-10) might have an edge as the favorite to win the sectional but will have to face a Raiders’ team that’s red-hot at the plate, will be fresh with its best-starting pitchers and seeking revenge.
In the first game of the regular season, one game before playing Liberty Christian, Southern Wells fell 8-2 to Wes-Del, who at the time ranked fourth in 1A.
Now, 20 games later, Huffman’s guys are chomping at the bit to get another crack at them.
“I think for the first time all year, they’re more excited than I am to play a baseball game,” Huffman said. “Last time, we left a few stones unturned as far as what we could have done and what we ended up doing, so I think if we show up and execute, we’re going to have a good chance. The boys are riding a little bit of momentum for the first time this year. I hope that plays a factor in it.”
The game will be at 5 p.m. Monday, May 27 with the championship game at 5 p.m. the same night. The other side of the bracket features Cowan and Tri-Central.
ryan@news-banner.com
