Wingenter’s home run sets new mark, Bob Jones sweeps to area title
Madison- The Bob Jones baseball team reached new heights on Saturday when the Patriots pounded Florence pitching for an 11-0 five inning win to complete Area 15 play with an undefeated 6-0 mark.
In those six area wins, Patriots pitching has allowed only run and Bob Jones has outscored their opponents 47-1.
Trey Wingenter powered the attack with both his hitting and pitching in a Friday night game in Florence won 5-0 by Bob Jones. The Auburn-signee went five innings to pick up win number 8 on the season before giving way to closer Austin May. From the plate Wingenter slammed his ninth home run of the season.
Saturday, Charlie Weaver took the mound and promptly struck out the side in the first inning. The Patriots continued swinging hot bats as they plated a single run in the first and 2 each in the second and third inning.
Leftfielder Brent Elder had 2 singles and a double and reached on an error for a perfect 3 for 3 game with 2 runs scored.
“That is the first time we have swept the area teams since I have been here,” Elder said. “That is an accomplishment we wanted to do coming into this year. It will get us hot going into the state tournament and hopefully make a run at the state championship.”
“We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now. You can see it every time we come out and play. Especially when we got Charlie or Trey pitching we know we can beat anybody. We go up there and swing the stick well and they go out and throw strikes and we know we are going to win.”
Elder’s hot hitting streak has propelled his average over .350 but on this team that is far from leading the team. Elder is also the team’s third starting pitcher.
The Patriots started another rally in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI triple for Matt Bolger that drove home Luke Pearce and made it 8-0. With runners at second and third and no outs Trey Wingenter stepped to the plate with a chance to end the game with a base hit. He did better than that with a long home run over the right center field fence to end the game at 11-0.
The blast set a new career home run record for Bob Jones. Wingenter now has 17 career home runs and is hitting above .450 for the season.
Wingenter said the best thing about his play is that it has helped the team sweep the area race.
“In the 3 years I have been playing it is the first time we have swept the area,” Wingenter said.
“It feels pretty good, just keep adding to it,” Wingenter said of the new home run mark. And how does it feel to be pitching and hitting this well, Wingenter said it with one word, “awesome.”
For Charlie Weaver it was one of his best outings of the season as he benefitted from the all the run support. He went five innings, allowed 3 hits, and struck out 6 to run his record to 8-0.
A couple of tune up games is all that is left before the state playoffs begin on April 20.
Bob Jones has a scheduled home doubleheader with Sparkman on Tuesday night April 10 and a home doubleheader with Huntsville on Monday April 16.
“We’re just going to keep riding this momentum and play with intensity like Coach Bell preaches. We just got to ride those guys on the mound and score some runs for them. We do that then the sky is the limit for this team,” Elder said.
