LAMP-ACA: Eagles pound Tigers in area series sweep
LAMP’s Grayson Hall jumps for a throw as ACA’s Preston Hicks steals second base in the Eagles’ win on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Facing Isaac Warrick in any given series is hard enough.
Facing him on consecutive days really isn’t fair.
LAMP only saw the Alabama Christian senior for four outs on Thursday because the Eagles jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and Warrick was pulled quickly to preserve his pitching eligibility for Friday.
Another dose of Warrick on Friday afternoon resulted in the same outcome as ACA pounded the Golden Tigers 11-1, then completed the doubleheader sweep with a 10-0 win at the AUM Baseball Complex.
“That was not the initial plan,” ACA coach Manuel Guice said. “In the first inning (on Thursday), we came out and scored eight runs before he got to 25 pitches, so the conversation started at about pitch number 20. It was a quick decision that presented itself and it worked out to our favor.
“Everybody has different philosophies on their pitching. They saved their No. 1 guy for today. The way it worked out, to be able to get the win (on Thursday) and still be able to match up our No. 1 against their No. 1 is a positive thing.”
Will Romanowski’s defense was nearly as effective as LAMP fielders committed an error in each of the first four innings. On the other hand, ACA fielders didn’t have to make many plays because Warrick struck out 13 of the 21 batters he faced.
“I knew I would pitch today after he pulled me yesterday,” Warrick said. “I’m pretty sure that was Coach’s plan the whole time. He saw what they threw out against us the first game and they probably thought they’d get past me and deal with our other guys. Then Coach Guice had another plan, to save me so we’d throw No. 1 against No. 1 and it worked out for us.”
ACA, which won Thursday’s game 13-2 in five innings, won all three games in the series in five-inning, run-rule fashion, but the third game counts only as a tiebreaker in the area standings.
“This time of year, it’s about accumulating area wins,” Guice said. “So when you play your first area series and go 2-0, that’s big. Obviously, we have a lot more work to do and a big series next week against St. James.”
ACA (13-8) improved to 2-0 in 4A Area 3 play heading into next week’s area series with St. James (4-0). LAMP (10-11) dropped to 0-4 in area play heading into next week’s area series with Booker T. Washington (0-2).
“It feels amazing,” Warrick said. “It’s a big confidence booster for our guys and it feels great to go 2-0 against a pretty solid team going into the St. James’ series next week. The confidence it just gives us going into next week is unbeatable.”
In the first game on Friday, Hayes Hunt went 2 for 3 with a walk and a pair of RBIs, Preston Hicks went 2 for 3, Warrick drove in a pair of runs and Landon Nelson went 1 for 1 with a walk and three RBIs.
Andrew Lutz went 2 for 3 to account for both of LAMP’s hits.
In the second game, Hunt went 2 for 3 with a double, Hicks went 1 for 1 and reached base in all three at-bats, Trey Schlemmer went 2 for 3 with a pair of RBIs, Warrick had a two-run double and an intentional walk and Kellen Kendrick had a triple to drive in a run.
Josh Donaldson had a second-inning single to account for the only hit off of Hunt.
“We were pitching it well and fielding it well early in the year, we were just cold with the bats,” Guice said. “I don’t want to jinx us or anything but over the last few weeks we’ve been seeing it pretty well and hitting it pretty well and that was a big key to this series. We were hitting a lot of solid balls.”
LAMP returns home to play host to Brewbaker Tech on Monday, while ACA remains home to play Stanhope Elmore on Monday.