Bob Jones sweeps Decatur to start area play
Madison- After a Friday night rainout, the Bob Jones baseball team had to wait an extra day to finally get into area play as the Patriots hosted Decatur for a Saturday doubleheader. Behind the pitching of Trey Wingenter in game one and Charlie Weaver in game two, the Patriots dominated both at the plate and on the mound and posted two shutouts, 6-0 in game one and 10-0 in game two.
In game one, Wingenter went 7 innings for the complete game shutout, his second of the season. He struck out a season-high 17 batters and allowed only 3 hits.
“It was a fun game. It’s a good way to start the area play part of the season,” Wingenter said after the second game ended. “Our goal is to play our best baseball right now. We played pretty well but still got room to improve.”
It would be hard to improve on Wingenter’s Earned Run Average which now hovers around the 0.20 mark.
“The competition is going to get tougher every week so we got to keep playing hard every day and getting better which I know we are capable of doing,” said Wingenter who ran his record to 6-0.
Decatur contributed 3 errors to help Bob Jones batters but it was Brent Elder and Patrick Mullen who did the most damage from the plate for the Patriots. Mullin slammed a 2-run home run to stake Wingenter to an early lead. Brent Elder went 3 for 3 with a double and scored 2 runs. He also drove home a run.
Game 2
Not to be outdone, Charlie Weaver pitched his third complete game and second shutout of the season as he went 6 innings to pick up his 6th win against no losses. Weaver allowed only 5 hits but the story of this game was the Bob Jones batters who pelted Decatur pitchers early with a 5 run first inning.
Bob Jones led 3-0 before Decatur recorded an out as a Pat Mullin single was followed by doubles from Matt Bolger and Trey Wingenter and a Nate Nelson single. Matt Sanders then had a sacrifice fly and Mason Throneberry finished off the inning with a double and later scored on an error.
The Patriots added 2 runs in the third inning with Brent Elder smacking a double to score Nate Nelson. Elder later scored on a wild pitch.
Trey Wingenter, playing first base, added a solo home run in the fourth inning to make it 8-0.
Tantalizingly close to the 10-run lead that would end the game, the Patriots finished off Decatur in the bottom of the sixth when Brent Elder doubled 2 runners in to end the game.
Nate Nelson finished the game going 3 for 3 with a walk and 3 runs scored. Close behind was Trey Wingenter who went 4 for 4 with his third home run of the season. He also scored 3 runs. Brent Elder was 2-4 with 2 doubles.
“We’ve got a number of great hitters and we just got to keep our confidence up and keep swinging like we did that second game,” said Nelson the centerfielder and clean-up hitter who now leads the team in hits, runs scored, and is hitting .430 which still trails Wingenter’s .450 batting average.
“Charlie and Trey are pitching really well and hopefully they can keep that up so we can make a run at this state title,” Nelson said.
“We feel confident about our pitching,” Nelson added. “We’ve got a number of guys like Mason, Brent, and Austin May to help them out.”
The win pushed the now second ranked Patriots to 22-3 overall with a home game next Friday night at 6 p.m. against area opponent Austin next up.
The top ranked baseball team in 6A is Pelham.
