Saxton, Spartans roll/South Warren takes Game 1 from Gators, 11-1

GREENWOOD’S 4-GAME WIN STREAK COMES TO A HALT

Chris Gage and the South Warren High School baseball team needed a lift. A spark. Some positive vibes.

Check, check, and oh yeah.

Gage’s Spartans scored in every inning after the first, and senior right-hander Riley Saxton needed just 70 pitches to tame Greenwood High School 11-1 on Tuesday night at the South Warren Ballpark.

South Warren improved to 6-5 on the season, and the Spartans will try to sweep the KHSAA 14th District regular-season series on Thursday at Greenwood. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.

The Spartans collected nine hits against four Greenwood pitchers, and a 35-minute weather delay in the fourth inning seemed to be a turning point against the Gators (7-5).

Greenwood’s four-game winning streak came to a halt, as South Warren’s Drew Wolfram delivered a two-run single up the middle, ending the game after six innings.

Saxton earned his second victory in three decisions, and after the weather delay, he slipped a called third strike past Greenwood’s Joseph Trahill to battle out of trouble in the fourth.

The heavy thunderstorms of the last two days left veteran South coach Chris Gage and his team scrambling to get the field ready for Tuesday night’s game.

Greenwood scored the game’s first run, without a benefit of a base hit, against Saxton in the top of the first inning. Leadoff man Zach Davis drew a walk from Saxton and would later score on Rhett Dysholm’s fielder’s choice with one out.

“Oftentimes, we don’t play too well after we had to deal with the weather like that,” Gage said. “I guess sometimes I have trouble getting their attention. I was really proud of our guys’ ability to focus.

“Our assistant coaches did a couple hitting drills with our kids and that seems to have paid off, too. Our last game (a 6-5 road victory over Breckenridge County on Saturday), we kind of hit the ‘on’ switch after three or four innings. Since then, we’ve played pretty well.”

South catcher Trevor McNaughton said he noticed Saxton had his full repertoire of pitches while warming up in the bullpen before the game. Gage was equally encouraged by what he saw.

After the Gators’ Zach Davis scored the game’s first run, Saxton would retire the next seven batters he faced.

The Spartans grabbed a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning. That was all the support Riley Saxton would really need, but South Warren led the rest of the way by again scoring at least one run by in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

Saxton took care of the rest.

“I felt really confident at the beginning of the game,” Saxton said. “I really thought I had my best stuff … I just had to stay focused. I think I threw harder after coming back from the rain delay.”

That would prove to be music to Chris Gage’s ears, too.

“The weather delay … coming back was all about mental toughness,” Gage said.

On the other side of the coin, Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers was disappointed his team struggled so much defensively, roughly one month into the 2022 season. Right-hander James Russell started the game on the mound for the Gators, but Jaggers lifted Russell for first of three relievers in the bottom of the fourth, AFTER the weather delay.

“We didn’t play the way we have, almost all season long,” Jaggers said. “We didn’t stay ahead (in the count), on the mound, and defensively, we didn’t make the plays … plays we’ve been making all year.

“It kind of snowballed on us.”

South’s Trevor McNaughton turned in a strong performance behind the plate and with a bat in his hands. The Spartans senior catcher went 3-for-3 with a walk, and his third-inning single, a line drive to left-center field, scored South’s Dalton Sisson put his team in front 3-1.

The Spartans would build on that lead in each subsequent inning.

“We just have to stay focused on the big picture, stay focused on what we’re doing as a team,” Saxton said. “The name on the front of the jersey is more important than the one on your back … “

South Warren center fielder Kobe Martin, the leading rusher for the Spartans’ KHSAA Class 5A state champion football squad, believes the sky is the limit if his team can continue to improve.

“We finally hit the ball a little bit,” Martin said. “We were going downhill on the bases, getting the angles right for running the bases … We had some quality at bats.”

Riley Saxton turned in what was likely his best performance of the season.

Saxton gave up just three hits over his six innings on the mound, finishing with four strkeouts. The one batter he walked, Greenwood leadoff man Zach Davis, scored the Gators’ lone run in the first.

“Riley and I have been playing on the same team for a long time,” McNaughton said. “From the bullpen, to the first couple innings, you could see he was hitting his spots. Fastball, curve, slider, change-up. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

“He let the defense do their job.”

Neither Greenwood coach Jason Jaggars nor South’s Chris Gage were ready to name a starting pitcher for Game Two of the series on Thursday night.

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