Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Punch And Counter-Punch Baseball Contest
LINCOLN — Brandon Happy kept telling his teammates and coaches, “Today is going to be our day,” on March 16 never wavering from his proclamation.
Happy remained enthusiastic in the dugout even when the Wolves hit what coach Justin Bounds called a deadspot in the second inning. The Wolves overcame Providence Academy loading the bases twice and scoring four runs in the second inning, to defeat the Patriots, 16-6, presenting Bounds with his first victory as Lincoln’s head baseball coach on March 16.
“We finally got a nice day today and played ball. With all the rain and snow it was tough to get the field ready,” Bounds said, noting he almost got stuck mowing the outfield.
Lincoln began the season 0-3 including an 11-7 loss to Providence Academy the week before and Bounds said from talking to other coaches, the Wolves were fortunate to have that many games under their belt.
“It feels good to get that monkey off my back and for these guys. To start off 0-3 you start thinking about things. Then to come out and get a 10-run rule win it’s great. We had a freshman dropping out a squeeze bunt [for the game-ending RBI single], Jacob Anderson, that’s big for him.”
Trailing 1-0, Cord McCaslin doubled in the bottom of the first, then scored on Dalton Hamby’s single. Lane Maddox followed with a single and Kaleb Ayers brought in the go-ahead run with a double. Pace Maddox belted a 2-run single and Lincoln established a 4-1 lead after one inning of play.
“We started off the game and gave up one run at the top of the first. Then to answer it, we came back with four in the first. It was kind of the old punch and counter-punch type of ball game,” Bounds said.
Providence Academy tied the game with three runs in the top of the second but Lincoln came alive again at the plate in their half of the second.
“We came back with a six spot [6 runs] in the bottom of the second. Just looking at that, I’m definitely proud of that,” Bounds said. “We got hit then we throw up a six spot on them, that’s big.”
The score was 12-6 in the bottom of the fifth when the Wolves put the game away. McCaslin began with a leadoff walk with a check swing after reaching a full count. Hamby then stretched a hit into a double drawing praise from his coach.
“Hey, nice straight base-running,” Bounds said.
Lane Maddox did the same thing squeezing a triple out of a 2 run hit and Lincoln was poised to end the contest with a 14-6 lead, no outs and a runner at third. Ayers ground out to first but drove in Lane Maddox. Pace Maddox next hit a chopper that landed in front of the short stop but bounced by him for a single. Prater singled into deep center field to advance Pace Maddox to third. A grounder brought up Lincoln’s second out, yet allowed Prater to scoot to second. Toby Rose had a productive at-bat, getting ahead 3-0 before reaching a full count. He took ball four low loading the bases and bringing up Anderson, whose bunt single scored Pace Maddox to wrap up the game, 16-6, in Lincoln’s favor.