Twenty wins (again) for Jefferson baseball team
SHENANDOAH JUNCTION — After splitting its four games in Myrtle Beach, Jefferson High School returned to its area-based schedule this week, with a 20-3 overall record and an important road date on Monday, against county rival Washington.
The wins in South Carolina came against Waccamaw (S.C.) and the Logan (W.Va.) Wildcats. Losses were to Bishop O’Connell (Va.) and High Point Christian (N.C.).
Back in the area, Jefferson played Frankfort and Musselman earlier this week before returning to Cooperstown, N.Y. and baseball’s Hall of Fame. The Cougars are scheduled to play Pendleton County (W.Va.) at historic Doubleday Field both today and tomorrow.
This coming Monday, the Cougars are slated to play county opponent Washington on the road in the second of two regular season games against the Patriots, who returned from four games in Myrtle Beach with an overall record of 10-5. Washington scored a run in the seventh inning of the teams’ first game played in Shenandoah Junction to edge the Cougars, 5-4. That loss was the lone blemish on Jefferson’s record when it went to Myrtle Beach last week with an 18-1 record.
Jefferson owned earlier wins over both Frankfort and Musselman.
In its final game at the beach in South Carolina, the Cougars used the shutout pitching of Riley Morgan to defeat Logan. Morgan fanned 11, allowed three hits, four walks and a hit batsman in taming the Wildcats.
Bishop O’Connell had limited Jefferson to only three hits in trimming the Cougars, 3-1 and then High Point Christian pitching did the same in an 8-1 victory over the Cougars.
But against Logan, Connor Bailey and Kellen Kinsler both had two hits and Ryan Hefner, Sam Wabnitz, Sammy Roberts, Noah Cater and Daquon Shipe all had a hit as there were nine hits against the Wildcats.
In stopping Waccamaw, 8-4, the Cougars again had nine hits with Wabnitz, Hefner and Griffin Horowicz each claiming two hits. Wabnitz and Horowicz both drove in two runs.
Horowicz pitched 4.1 innings, allowing four hits and two walks. Both the runs he allowed were earned and he struck out five. Jarrett Day went 2.2 innings, yielding four hits and a walk while striking out one batter.
A four-run uprising late in that game led to the victory.
With 23 games having been played, Roberts led the team in batting average with a .392 mark. Bailey showed a .388 batting average with Wabnitz (.379), Horowicz (.369), Carter (.353), J.J. Polvinale (.344) and Hefner (.322) all solidly above the .300 mark.
Bailey’s 29 runs scored led the way going into last Monday’s game versus Frankfort. Roberts, Wabnitz and Horowicz had all scored 25 runs.
The team leader in RBIs was Horowicz with 28. Wabnitz had driven in 25 runs, Roberts had 22 RBIs and Bailey 17.
There were five pitchers with unbeaten records (Horowicz 4-0, Morgan 3-0, Dylan Mabe 3-0, Ethan Hall 2-0 and Day 2-0).
In 10 appearances, Hall had posted a 0.00 ERA, just ahead of Horowicz (1.07), Morgan (1.69) and Daquon Shipe (1.75). Day’s ERA was 2.40 and Roberts had pitched to a 3.89 ERA in his team-leading 27 innings.
The other leaders in innings pitched were Shipe (24), Morgan (20.2), Horowicz (19.2) and Hall (13).
The other top-rated Class AAA teams in the state are Hurricane (19-3 record), defending state champion Bridgeport (16-3), Spring Valley and Martinsburg.