Apalachee High School baseball coach Mike Cavey was looking for a big win Monday to erase what had been a bad previous week.
As it turns out, Cavey got a huge one as his Diamond Wildcats took a 10-0 subregion victory against visiting Clarke Central to get back on the winning track. Junior Mason Webb earned the win going all five innings while striking out six and scattering three hits and three walks. Webb needed 76 pitches to get the job done.
“We were coming off a bad week,” Cavey said. “We faced Madison County’s ace last Monday and you can deal with that. However, we let the rematch on Wednesday get away and then we played terrible on Friday. We let Wednesday’s loss carry over into Friday.”
A Sunday coaches meeting focused on keeping the players relaxed for Monday’s game with Clarke Central.
“We didn’t want them playing so tight,” Cavey said. “I thought our hitters did a good job of picking their spots.”
The win improved AHS to 7-4 overall and 2-3 against Region 8-AAAA teams. In subregion play, the Diamond Cats are now 1-2.
Eric Morgan had a big day at the plate going 4-for-4 with a double, triple and the game-winning RBI. Tony Salvaggio was 2-for-2 while Steven Adair had a triple which drove in two runs.
AHS put two runs on the board in the bottom of the second. Salvaggio had a leadoff single and Clint Ashe was hit by a pitch. Ronney Miller then had a single to load the bases.
A fielder’s choice by Andy Shelton, who was serving as the designated hitter for the game, hit into a fielder’s choice allowing Salvaggio to score the first run of the day. After Austin Leazer walked, Chance Rodriguez hit a pop fly to left field. It appeared the left fielder dropped the ball, but the home plate umpire ruled the ball was dropped as the defender was taking it out of his glove for the throw to the infield. With Shelton holding at second base on the pop fly, the Wildcat player then had to try and advance to third but was easily tagged out. Ashe did manage to score on the play before the out at third base.
Despite Cavey’s questioning of the call, the play stood and the inning ended with no additional runs for the Wildcats.
AHS broke the game open in the third inning with five runs.
Adair drove in two runs and later scored on a single from Ashe. Leazer drove in Salvaggio and Ashe with a two-run single.
The Wildcats put another run on the board in the fourth on an RBI single from Salvaggio scoring Morgan who had a leadoff double and was balked to third.
The Wildcats closed the door on the Gladiators when Rodriguez had a sacrifice fly to score Miller in the fifth and Morgan tripled home Tyler Starnes.
“Mason did a good job for us on the mound today,” said Cavey. “Clarke Central came in here today as a team that had been playing well. He got behind some batters early but it probably helped him to be able to work with a lead.”
Prior to Monday’s win, the Wildcats fell to Heritage 11-1. Eight errors proved costly for AHS.
“Ronney Miller started and really pitched well,” Cavey said. “He didn’t deserve the loss, but unfortunately he got it.”
