West roars past Foard

The West Caldwell Warriors know that in order to make the state playoffs, there is no room for error for the remainder of the baseball season. They answered the call Monday by defeating Foard in Gamewell 14-4 via the 10-run mercy rule.

A.J. Jenkins picked up the win, going all six innings, striking out three and walking just one. He is 4-2 on the season. Robert McKinney took the loss for the Tigers.

“I challenged the team to get back in the race and tonight they responded,” said Warriors coach Kevin Abee. “Tonight is a great win to build on and to show we are the team no one wants to face in the future.”

Ironically, the Warriors lost to the Tigers in Newton by a similar score of 14-3 on March 12.

The Warrior win sets up a race to the finish for one final playoff berth. West joins Bunker Hill, Maiden, and Newton-Conover who are all within a game of each other for the final playoff spot.

The Warriors found themselves down 2-0 quickly as Chad Rothlin singled off Jenkins on the first pitch of the game and Landon Isenhour blasted a home run deep to left center two pitches later.

In the bottom of the first, the Warriors fought back with two out as Jenkins reached on a walk and moved to second on a Jeffrey Rousselle infield single. Jake Benfield then launched his second home run of the season to right field to give the Warriors a 3-2 lead.

“Its huge to respond in high school baseball,” explained Abee. “Then after we took a lead, we never sat on it. We just kept scoring.”

The Warriors added a fourth run as Scotty Brown reached on a dropped third strike and scored on a Caleb Gragg single to center.

With one away in the second, Gordy Hendrix reached on an infield single. Hendrix stole second and moved to third on a Bowles ground out before scoring on a wild pitch to extend the Warrior lead to 5-2.

The Tigers closed to within a run in the third as Andrew Wyant doubled and McKinney singled to left. Two batters later both Wyant and McKinney scored on a Mitchell Henderson double to left field to trim the Warrior advantage to 5-4, but Foard would not get any closer.

West Caldwell stormed back in the fourth as Evan Swanson reached on a walk and Ray Bowles singled to right for Jenkins who singled to left to score both men. Jenkins moved to second on an error and scored on a Rousselle single to right to give the Warriors a 8-4 lead.

The Warriors then exploded for five runs in the fifth beginning when Luke Greene notched his first home run of the season extending the West Caldwell lead to 7-4. Swanson walked and Hendrix reached on an infield single before Bowles sacrificed both men into scoring position for Jenkins who legged out an infield single scoring Greene. A heads-up play by Hendrix who never stopped running on the play scored from second as the Tigers infield looked befuddled. Rousselle then doubled in Jenkins to extend the Warrior lead to 13-4.

The mercy-rule run was scored in the bottom of the sixth as Caleb Gragg walked and moved to second on a Greene ground out. Two batters later, Hendrix singled to center to score Gragg and give the Warriors the final 14-4 margin.

“Tonight was a great win for us, but we don't get to celebrate it. Tomorrow we start getting ready for Patton,” said Abee.

The Warriors return to action Wednesday as the travel to Shuey Field in Morganton to face Patton. Game time is set for 7 p.m.