After the first game last Monday between the two Jackson Parish rivals, which saw #3 Weston beat #1 Quitman, there was no change in the power point rankings. Assuredly though, after the rematch on Thursday, one would tumble from their perch atop the Class B standings. It wasn’t Quitman.
The Wolverines parlayed five clutch hits, five Weston errors and a deciding five run, sixth inning to whip the Wolves 9-1 and gain revenge in their district 2B series. With the victory and adding Quitman’s 14-0 and 19-5 sweep of Simsboro on Friday, the Wolverines improved to 15-12 overall and 4-2 in district play to finish in second place behind district 2B champion and 2nd ranked, Choudrant. Weston fell to 3-3 in 2B and 16-10 overall. The Wolves also fell three places to #6 in the Class B “non- select” school rankings.
Quitman 9 Weston 1: While the five-run inning put the game out of reach, the two runs Quitman scored in the bottom of the first was all they needed as Blake Carter stepped up to pitch his best game of the year when his team needed it the most. In his fourth start of the season, all since March 31st, Carter evened his season record to 2-2 by masterfully limiting Weston to just five singles and one earned run while throwing a season high 104 pitches over seven efficient innings.
The Wolverines got on the board in the bottom of the first when Luke Morgan coaxed a walk off of losing pitcher Davis Tolar and went to second on a passed ball. An error off the bat of Logan Ponder, who promptly stole second was followed with a two RBI single by Ian Tilley.
Weston cut the lead in half in the top of the second when Drew Browning got hit by a pitch, went to second on a Tait Henderson hit and scored when Cole Tolar singled. Weston looked primed to strike again in the top of the third after Caleb Waters reached on an error and Davis Tolar got hit but a nifty grab by shortstop Logan Ponder on a sharp smash just to the left of second base led to a twin killing that ended the inning.
Quitman added another in the bottom of the fourth when Cam Deal hit a one out single and went to second on an error off the bat of Cam Hollis. Kyler West then plated the run with a single. The Wolverines scored again in the fifth without a hit when Ponder walked, stole second went to third on a grounder and then tagged up on a Tilley sacrifice fly to right.
Hits by Deal and Ty Simonelli, two Weston errors and a hit batsman paved the way to the five run, sixth that upped the lead to the final 9-1 margin. Weston had base runners in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings but couldn’t push any runs across against Carter who masterfully left 8 runners stranded on base in the game.
Offensively for the Wolverines, Tilley had three RBI and Simonelli two with Ponder scoring three times and both Morgan and Deal, who had two hits, tallying twice to lead the charge. Caleb Waters led Weston with two hits.
Weston 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 – 1 5 5
Quitman 2 0 0 1 1 5 x – 9 5 2
WP – Carter (2-2)
LP – Tolar (3-1)
RBI – (QHS) Tilley -3, Simonelli – 2, West (WHS) C. Tolar
RS – (QHS) Ponder – 3, Morgan-2, Deal – 2, Simonelli, West (WHS) Browning
SB – (QHS) Simonelli -2, Ponder -2
Quitman sweeps Simsboro
It was a grand day on Friday as the Wolverine team honored senior’s Luke Morgan and Ty Simonelli signing of scholarships by smashing Simsboro 14-0 and 19-5 and end the regular season as the #1 ranked team in Class B for the first time since the power point era began.
In the first game Logan Ponder went 4/4 and drove in three runs while Blake Carter went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored to lead the Quitman onslaught that pounded out 16 hits. Ian Tilley scored twice as did the senior signees, Morgan and Simonelli. Hudson Pullig got his first two RBI of the year as well.
In game two, Simsboro scored four runs in the top of the first but it wasn’t near enough as the Wolverines responded with five, eight and five runs in their next three at bats to end the contest after 4 ½ innings. The highlight of the game was the play of several seldom used players that head coach Joe Lockhart let take the field.
John Reagan Hasley got more hits (3) in one game than he had all year (2). Also Landyn Caskey drove in 4 runs for his first RBI’s of the season as he and Bryan Lay collected their first doubles. For Lay it was his first hit of the year as well. Mainstays, Luke Morgan, Ian Tilley and Blake Carter ended the regular season in style with three runs scored each with Cam Hollis, Logan Ponder and Ty Simonelli added two apiece.
