Ware County scored in four of its five trips to the plate to back the three-hit shutout of Slade Sweat in a 10-0 victory in the opener of Friday’s Region 1-AAAA twinbill.
Sweat (5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 8 K, 0 BB, 1 WP) needed 68 pitches as the Gators (127 overall, 8-0 region) stretched their winning streak to 10 games. He also helped himself at the plate going 3-for-4 with a double and homer, driving in a team-high three runs.
Ware County scored all the runs it would need with a two-run first inning. The Gators got on the board quickly with a leadoff walk to Collin Crawford (2-for-3), a stolen base and scoring on a wild pitch.
Seth Suess (2-for-2) was hit one pitch later and raced to third on Sweat’s double. Suess scored on a passed ball for a 2-0 lead.
Suess led off the third with a walk, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on Sweat’s groundout for a 3-0 lead. Ware County left the bases loaded following three consecutive one out walks to Isaiah White (1-for-3), Tanner Larisey (1-for-2) and Keaton Holloway.
The Gators plated four runs in the fourth to open up a 7-0 advantage. Crawford singled with one out, stole second and raced home on a Suess single to center.
Sweat followed blasting a high fly ball over the fence in center, his second roundtripper in the series, for a 6-0 lead. A double by White and a bloop single to right by Larisey put runners on the corners. Holloway dropped down a sacrifice bunt on the ensuing pitch scoring White for the seven-run lead.
Ware County ended the game in the bottom of the fifth plating three runs. Blake Gunter was hit by a pitch leading off, stole second and scored on Crawford’s ensuing base hit to center.
Crawford, who raced to third on the two-base fielding error, scored on a Suess base hit. Sweat’s ensuing grounder was turned into a two-base error with Suess stopping at third and Sweat at second. White’s groundout one pitch later scored Suess ending the game via the “10-run mercy rule.”
Warner Robins collected two of its three hits in the first inning and its final leading off the fourth. The Demons had two runners reach second.
