Warriors defeat Danville on senior night

May 5—The Southwestern Warriors concluded a long stretch of home games, eight to be specific, on a warm Friday evening as they hosted the reigning 12th Region champions in the Danville Admirals. The Warriors were hoping for a bit of a bounce back performance after a less-than-stellar outing against Boyle County on Thursday. Southwestern was also looking for their first victory against the Admirals since 2017. To top it all off, it was senior night for the home team, as Southwestern celebrated Travis Burton, Ben Howard, Braden Morrow, Caleb Ramsey, Dakota Sadler and Orion Thomas before the beginning of the ball game.

The home team on Friday was able to play much better on Friday, as the pitching and defense of the Warriors seemed to be in top form. Southwestern did much of their scoring in the early periods of the ball game and ended up coming out on the winning end of things, defeating Danville in a low scoring game 5-1.

Braden Morrow was the starter for the Warriors and the batters of Danville seemed to not be able to figure out his pitches early, as they went three up and three down for a quick conclusion to the top of the first inning.

The same seemed to ring true for Southwestern in the home half of the first, as Danville sophomore pitcher Fox Spears struck out two straight batters to begin the offense for the Warriors. Jonas Gallagher was walked to become the first player to reach base safely before Jace Gager grabbed the first hit of the contest, a single on a ground ball to left field. The next batter grounded into a fielder's choice to retire the side and leave the two base runners stranded.

It was again a quick three outs in the top of the second as the Admirals couldn't get solid contact on the ball.

Kyle West began the bottom of the second with a lead-off double on a line drive to left, quickly putting a Warrior into scoring position. Following another strikeout by Spears, Travis Burton put the first run on the board with an RBI single into center field, giving Southwestern a 1-0 lead. The Warriors weren't done there though, as Morrow came through on the plate as well with an RBI single to right field for the second run. Danville was able to turn a double play to retire the side, but not before Southwestern went ahead 2-0.

After a pop out began the top of the third inning, senior Jaxsin Clontz became the first Admiral to reach base after being walked on four straight pitches. Another pop out later and Southwestern catcher Wyatt Morgan threw out Clontz trying to steal second base, retiring the side with still no hits on the board for the visiting team.

Orion Thomas began the bottom of the third frame with an infield single to give Southwestern an early base runner. Thomas was able to make it to third base after two straight ground outs before a walk on Morgan gave the Warriors runners on the corners. Southwestern then got an RBI single from West that rolled into left field for the third run for the home team. Another RBI single, this one from Ben Howard, increased the Warriors' lead even further. They led 4-0 after the conclusion of the inning and looked to be going into cruise control with a comfortable lead.

Danville eighth grader Nolan Bryant began the top of the fourth with a well-placed bunt for a single. He wound up advancing to second base but a double play was turned by Gager to retire the side with Danville still searching for their first run in this one.

The Warriors didn't have much luck in the bottom of the fourth inning, as they sent three batters to the plate and three batters were quickly out, with Spears striking out another batter.

Freshman Wyatt Gale was hit by a pitch to begin the fifth inning before a single by junior Zhane Ford put two runners on base for Danville with no outs, their best chance to score so far in the game. With one out, a fly ball was launched by freshman Noah Cross that was deep enough for a sacrifice fly RBI to score the first Danville run of the contest. A runner was then out after trying to tag up and advance to third base for the final out, with the Warriors still holding a 4-1 advantage.

Gallagher walked to begin the bottom of the fifth and was quickly advanced to third after two ground outs in a row. A second RBI of the evening was then struck by West for the fifth Southwestern run of the ball game. Howard was hit by a pitch before the final out was turned for the Admirals, although Southwestern had now built their lead to 5-1.

In the top of the sixth inning, freshman KJ Dismeaux struck the ball to left field that was good enough for a double. Despite Danville threatening to score again, the Warriors caught two straight fly outs to put the Admirals down to their final outs.

It was a quick bottom of the sixth, as the Warriors were sat down in order. Nolan Bryant, now in to pitch, threw his first strikeout of the contest for the final out.

Danville was down to their final three outs in the contest and just couldn't get anything going offensively in the final frame. All three batters flew out, one to Gager, one to Gallagher and one to Daniel Case, to end the ball game and give the 5-1 victory to Southwestern.

The Warriors were led by two RBI's from West, as well as one apiece from Howard, Burton and Morrow. Morrow pitched a complete game on the mound, allowing just one run on three hits with one walk. Danville's sole RBI was scored by Cross.

Southwestern improves to 14-15 and the Warriors will be back in action on Saturday in a doubleheader at North Laurel. They will play South Laurel at 11 a.m. and North Laurel at 1:30 p.m.

Jacob Pratt is the Sports Editor of the Commonwealth Journal and can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter @PrattTheNation