WEST POINT, Ala. – After sweeping a doubleheader with Priceville over the weekend, the Warriors returned home Tuesday night to host their area-opener against the Hamilton Aggies. Aubry Cleghorn got the start for West Point and tossed six scoreless innings to help lead the Warriors past Hamilton 4-0 and improve to 5-7 on the season.
After two scoreless innings and a double play that ended the top of the third, West Point struck in the bottom of the third. Chase Sibley led off the inning with a single and a sacrifice bunt by Carter Thornton gave the Warriors a runner in scoring position. A few pitches later, a sacrifice fly from Whitt Laney scored Will Brown to give West Point a 1-0 lead. Will Cochran then reached first base on an error and Brody Rusk singled up the middle to score Levi Farley and make it a 2-0 game. Cleghorn then helped himself out with a double off the fence in left field that scored two more runs and made it a 4-0 game going into the fourth.
Another double play from the Warriors ended the top of the fourth and Hamilton was kept off the board for the rest of the night. Eli Folds relieved Cleghorn in the seventh and put out the first three batters he faced to secure a 4-0 area win for West Point.
Warriors Head Coach Drew Bryson was proud of the way his starter performed on the mound. He believes this year’s team is built to win low-scoring games and they did just that tonight.
“Aubry goes out and does what Aubry does. He fills the zone up, gets ahead early, pounds the strike zone, attacks hitters and he’s got great stuff. That’s what we pride ourselves on, pitching and defense,” Bryson said. “We’re one of those teams that’s going to find a way to score three or four and we’re going to attack people on the mound and play great defense behind our pitchers.”
Bryson was impressed with everyone that pitched in Tuesday’s matchup, including Folds and the Aggies’ starter that kept West Point off the board in five of its six innings at the plate.
“(Aubry) did a great job and then obviously Eli (Folds) did great coming in as a young guy and that’s three games in a row that he’s been lights out. We’ve kind of slotted him into that closer role and we’re letting him get comfortable with that and he’s loved it,” Bryson said. “Credit to their guy too, that’s two years in a row I’ve seen (Elijah) Jackson and he can pitch. He’s not going to blow you away with the fastball, but he can pitch, and our guys got in there and battled until finally we got some big hits in that third inning when we needed them.”
West Point will travel to Hamilton with a chance to take the area series Thursday night.
Other Tuesday scores:
Jasper 9 – West Point 8 (varsity softball)
After building a 6-0 lead in the first two innings and leading the game 8-2 going into the sixth, Jasper put seven unanswered runs on the board to come from behind and topple the Lady Warriors in their first matchup of the night with the Lady Vikings.
Carlie Wilkins (two hits) drove in three runs for West Point and Gracie Thompson (two RBIs) led the Lady Warriors with three hits. Bethany Minck (one hit) and Lexi Shadix (one hit) each collected an RBI in the loss as well.
West Point 5 – Jasper 4 (varsity softball)
The Lady Warriors bounced back in their second matchup with Jasper. Both teams were scoreless after two innings, but West Point pulled ahead 3-0 in the bottom of third. The Lady Vikings responded with four runs in the top half of the fourth to take a 1-run lead, but the Lady Warriors took the lead for good in the bottom half of the inning. An RBI single from Lexi Shadix tied the game and Carlie Wilkins doubled into center field to give West Point a 5-4 lead that they held on to for the rest of the night.
Wilkins (two hits) drove in a pair of runs on the win and Shadix (one hit) collected an RBI as well.
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