The Winder-Barrow High School baseball team continued to be offensive Monday afternoon.
Coach Brian Smith’s Diamond Doggs were certainly offensive to visiting Eastside as they plated 18 runs on their way to a dominating 18-3 win which was mercifully called off after four innings. It was a true display of offense for WBHS, who moved to 4-0 with the win.
While it remains early in the season and the weather remains anything but spring like, the Bulldogg bats are certainly on fire.
Eastside actually led 1-0 after the top of the first, but few probably remembered by the time all was said and done.
“It was the first time we’ve had to come from behind this season,” Smith said. “We came back and won inning after inning. I thought we might have experienced a little bit of a letdown after the weekend, but we continued to play well.”
In the past three outings, the Diamond Bulldoggs have scored 43 runs. With the game tied Monday at 1-1 after the second inning, WBHS ended any thoughts of the contest being competitive by scoring eight runs in the bottom of the third and nine more in the bottom of the fourth to end it on the 15-run mercy rule.
Taylor Hinshaw delivered a two-run homer to end the contest in the fourth and the senior also added two triples in the contest. Kevin Wolf had a two-run homer in the third and Austin Meyer continues his early season standout performance, both at the plate and on defensive for Smith’s team.
“If we can keep scoring runs, we will be fine,” Smith said. “Dustin is going to get stronger as the season goes on and it gets warmer.”
While pleased with how the team has performed in the first four games, Smith knows it is still early.
“We have had to deal with some bad weather but we have still been able to fight through and play good defense,” the coach said. “Our pitching has been sound and we’ve been able to score runs. If we can keep those things, who knows what might happen.”
The WBHS Diamond Doggs lost just three seniors from last spring’s squad which advanced to the second round of the state playoffs.
“We are optimistic about this group,” Smith said. “It’s all going to come down if we can gel as a team. On paper, we should be good, but that doesn’t always mean anything.”
Competing in the always tough Region 8-AAAA will once again by a challenge for WBHS.
“Everyone is winning right now,” Smith said of the early portion of the 2010 season. “There should be a wide variety of teams competing for the four playoff spots.”
