Wednesday, March 20^th

 

Swatek and Ashford’s big day leads Hoover over Spain Park 11-9

 

On a very cool night at Spain Park High School, the #7 Hoover Buccaneers defeated #24 Spain Park 11-9 in a very offensive game. Hoover collected 12 hits, while Spain Park had 7 hits on the night. Both teams, especially Hoover, went deep into their bullpen, as the Bucs used 6 pitchers to get the win. ’21 RHP Austin Cornelius got the nod on the mound for Hoover but only threw 1 inning for the Bucs. Hoover set the tone offensively in the 1^st inning by hanging up an 9 spot on the board. ’19 1B Andrew Sasser busted the game wide open with a bases-clearing double to LF that brought home Cooper Prince, Lawrence Hammonds and Kole Roberts. A few pitches later, ’20 OF Robby Ashford came up for his 2^nd AB and drove an outside pitch over the RF wall for a no doubt 2 run HR. Ashford has definitely seen his stock rise as of late, as he is already considered one of the top dual threat QB’s in the country. He was recently bumped up to #4 in our ’20 Player Rankings. In the 3^rd inning, the Jaguars’ offense woke up and responded with a big inning of their own with 5 runs. With the score at 9-5 and runners on 1^st and 3rd, ’19 SS John Poist delivered a 2 RBI 3B off of the wall in LCF that cut the Buccaneer lead to 9-7. Poist was very interesting to watch, as he is a very hard-nosed player with sneaky pop in his barrel. Poist would come back up to bat in the 4^th with the score at 9-8 and the bases loaded with 2 outs and delivered a big-time AB with an 8 pitch walk that tied it at 9-9. That would be all the Jaguars could get. In the 5^th, Ashford started off with a single to LF and stole 2^nd a few pitches later. He would advance to 3^rd on a fly ball to RF. ’19 C/2B Peyton Wilson walked to put runners at 1^st and 3^rd, then ’19 3B/RHP Daniel Swatek came through for his 3^rd hit of the day with a 2 RBI 2B down the LF line to regain the lead at 11-9. This score would hold for the last 2 innings, as Hammonds came in and threw 3 scoreless IP.

 

Notables

-Daniel Swatek, Robby Ashford and Peyton Wilson all had multiple hits for the Buccaneers. Swatek was 3-4 w/ 2 2B’s and 3 RBI’s, Ashford was 2-4 w/ 3 R’s, HR and 2 RBI’s and Wilson was 2-3 w/ 2 R’s and a 3B.

-For the Jaguars, ’19 SS John Poist and ’20 OF Colton Ledbetter led the way. Poist was 1-3 w/ a 3B and 3 RBI’s while Ledbetter was 1-3 w/ 1 R and 2 BB’s.

-’19 RHP Will May was efficient out of the bullpen. He came in during the 1^st inning and would finish the game for the Jaguars. His final line: 6.1 IP, 5 H’s, 2 ER’s, 1 BB and 7 K’s.

-’20 SS/RHP Lawrence Hammonds came in during the 5^th inning and delivered 3 scoreless innings for Hoover. His final line: 3.0 IP, 2 H’s, 0 R, 1 BB and 4 K’s.

 

What’s Next?

-Hoover will travel to Georgia to play against Parkview (GA) at 5:00 and Loganville (GA) at 7:30 on Friday, March 22^nd.

-Spain Park will host Thompson HS in a doubleheader on Friday, March 22^nd at 4:00 and 6:30.