Gators Remain Unbeaten

Certain axioms in baseball hold true even at the high school level.

When your leading hitter, batting a robust .700, is hitting in the seventh spot in the lineup and as a team you average 16 hits a game, scoring and putting men on base is not going much of a problem.

That is pretty much the way the Wewahitchka High School baseball team is looking at things right now as the Gators, behind a powerful offense and solidly deep pitching, have bolted from the gate 7-0 overall and 3-0 in district play.

“We are hitting up and down the lineup,” said the Gator’s second-year coach Tony Muina. “We are reaping the benefits from what we did last year. They are a little more comfortable at the plate.”

Maybe the understatement of the young season.

Consider a pair of games the last week of February. The Gators traveled to Graceville and won 15-1 and hosted Franklin County and won 23-1, both games called on the run-rule.

Justin Flowers, hitting seventh in the order, was 3 for 3 with two RBIs against Graceville, with Billy Peak going 2 for 3 and Cody Wade 4 for 4 with two RBIs.

Wade was 3 for 3 with a home run and five RBIs against Franklin County while Chance Knowles hit a grand slam home run, had four hits in five at-bats and drove in six runs and Baylen Price had three hits and drove in two.

The hits kept coming in two district games last week, a 17-10 destruction of visiting Liberty County and a 17-0 pounding of host West Gadsden.

Against Liberty County the Gators had three hitters, Brandon Mayhann, Beau McCorvey and Price, each bang out three hits, McCorvey driving in four runs and Mayhann three. Mayhann and Peak had doubles. Knowles and Flowers each had two hits.

At West Gadsden, Flowers had three hits while Chris Peak, Taylor Husband and Knowles each had two hits.

All but one batter drove in a run, Flowers, Husband and Chris Peak each driving in three runs and all but three players scored a run, Flowers and Heath Bailey scoring four times apiece.

The Gators are also getting solid pitching from a wealth of arms, sporting a team ERA of 1.08.

Price is 3-0 and Mayhann is 2-0 while Knowles has assumed the role of the go-to arm in the late innings, also going 2-0.

Bailey has also been solid in relief as has Billy Peak and Wade.

“Our pitching has been doing well,” Muina said. “We’ll find out a lot about where we are this weekend.”

The Gators host Tallahassee John Paul II at 6 p.m. CT tonight and travel to L. B. Wallace (AL) Junior College on Saturday for a tournament which includes several large classification schools including Fort Walton Beach and Choctawhatchee.