Greenwood plays small ball for a big victory

5A-WEST BASEBALL

GREENWOOD 2, ALMA 1

GREENWOOD — The Greenwood Bulldogs relied on very small ball to rally to a big win on Tuesday.

Greenwood put down two straight bunts for hits in the fourth inning that led to one run and added the decisive run the next inning for a 2-1 win over rival Alma on the opening game of a 5A-West doubleheader.

“We’ve been working hard, and I’m just proud of our guys,” Greenwood coach Chad Mercado said. “They’ve toughed it out. We’ve tried to improve our practice plans and tried to improve how we come to the park every day. They’ve really responded. It feels good to win a close game.”

Greenwood (10-15, 6-6) won the second game, 10-0, in six innings to stay in contention for a 5A state tournament berth. The Bulldogs close the 5A-West schedule with a doubleheader at Greenbrier on May 3.

In the opener on Tuesday, Greenwood was blanked for the first three innings by Alma’s Logan Taylor, and found just the spark.

“Logan Taylor is really good,” Mercado said. “He works slow, and that’s an advantage for him. Hat’s off to him. They played great. He pitched really well. He pitched well against us last year so we knew what to expect. His game plan was to get us out in front and pop us up. Our game plan is to not pop up. Once we started putting together a few pop ups, we had to change something and put pressure on their defense.”

Dawson Holt led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a perfect bunt to the right side for a hit on the first pitch. Dylan Strozier put down another perfect bunt to the right side for another hit for two of the four hits allowed by Taylor in the game.

“He’s a lefty, so we tried to bunt to the right side,” Mercado said. “We went backto-back bunts for base hits instead of drag and then sac. It worked out for us. Our kids did a really good job of getting it done.”

Strozier, a senior catcher, knew what the call was going to be all along.

“Coach Mercado called it, and I was expecting it,” Strozier said. “I knew what sign I was about to get. I had to make a decision to what side it was going to be on. The third baseman was crashing, and the first baseman was holding on. I knew I had opening over there, so I put it down the first base side.”

A soft grounder moved both runners up, and Holt scored on a deep sacrifice fly from Weston Pschier to tie the game at 1-1.

Greenwood scored the decisive run the next inning.

Bryce Morgan was hit by a pitch with one out in the fifth, took second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a grounder and scored on a sharp single by left fielder Braden Skaggs.

Alma (6-20, 2-10) took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Nathan Machen led off with a single, took second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on an error and scored on Caden Griffin’s single. Alma, though, left the bases loaded.

The Airedales also loaded the bases in the fifth inning with no outs, but Greenwood starter Austin Mitchell got a bouncer back to him and the out at home before two straight called third strikes.