Sweat hits four homers, drives in nine at Coffee
DOUGLAS — Slade Sweat continued his recent power surge blasting a school-record four homers and driving in nine runs in Ware County’s wild 18-10 victory here Tuesday over Coffee at Charles A. Wilson Field.
The Gators (14-7) stretched their winning streak to 12 games. Ware County put together a 14game winning streak during the 2013 season and had a 13-game winning streak last season en route to a 20-1 start. The winning streaks are the longest over the last 13 seasons.
Sweat went 4-for-5 on his historic night slamming four consecutive homers after a first inning groundout stretching his torrid streak to four consecutive games with a homer. He hit a two-out, grandslam in the second inning off an 0-1 pitch capping a seven-run uprising against the Trojans’ Gavin McElroy.
The right-hander followed with a three-run homer in the third inning connecting on a one-out, 1-2 offering from Evan Lingenfelter as part of an eight-run inning.
Sweat and Seth Suess (2-for-3) went back-toback with solo homers, both on two-out, 2-1 pitches in a two-run fourth off Lingenfelter. Sweat deposited a twoout, 1-1 pitch from Eli Vickers over the fence for a solo homer in the sixth.
The display upped Sweat’s four-game tear to 13 hit in 16 at bat (.812 average) raising his season average to .486. He has recorded two doubles, seven homers and driven in 18 runs. Sweat was batting .389 with three doubles, no homers and eight RBI entering the Warner Robins series.
Coffee (12-10), losers of four straight, jumped out a 2-0 lead in the first inning against Suess (3.1 IP, 13 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 4 K, 1 BB, 1 WP) getting consecutive solo homers to start the inning from Ben Fussell (2-for-5) and Barrett Harrell (1-for-5) in a three-pitch sequence.
The Gators sent 10 batters to the plate in a sevenrun second inning taking the lead for good at 7-2. Landon Smallwood (4for-5) and Isaiah White (3-for-5) opened the inning with consecutive base hits.
Tanner Larisey (1-for-5) followed a balk by advancing the runners with a run-scoring groundout. Keaton Holloway’s ensuing grounder resulted in a two-base error allowing White to tie the score at 2-all.
Blake Gunter was hit by a two-out pitch to keep the inning alive. Collin Crawford (1-for-4) followed with a run-scoring single for a 3-2 lead. Suess reached on catcher’s interference loading the bases for Sweat, whose roundtripper pushed the lead out 7-2.
The Trojans responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning collecting five hits (four singles, double) closing the deficit to 7-6.
Ware County answered plating eight runs with 13 batters to their turn at the plate in the third inning. White and Larisey laced back-to-back singles and Holloway walked loading the bases. Colt Cox and Crawford followed with walks forcing home the first two runs.
Suess greeted Lingenfelter with a two-run double upping the lead to 11-6. Sweat followed with a three-run homer extending the margin to 14-6.
A Smallwood single and White double ensued before the second out was recorded. A Holloway grounder was booted to score Smallwood for a 15-6 advantage.
Coffee put together three singles, the last a run-scoring hit, to score a run in the bottom of the third to cut the deficit to 15-7.
The Gators scored twice in the fourth on back-to-back solo homers by Suess (second of year) and Sweat pushing the lead to 17-7.
The Trojans scored three times in the fourth on a oneout single, a groundout and a two-out single, the latter off Sweat (1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 K, 4 BB, 1 HBP) to close the margin to 17-10.
Ware County’s final run came in the sixth on Sweat’s two-out, solo homer.
Ashton Suess worked the final two innings for the Gators allowing a hit and striking out one.
