McCain’s pitching performance leads Raiders to victory over Deerfield-Windsor
Published 1:32 pm Wednesday, March 27, 2019
AMERICUS – Southland Academy starting pitcher Hunter McCain had a dominating performance on the mound for the Raiders. McCain pitched a complete game, giving up three runs on four hits. He walked two and struck out eight batters to lead the Raiders to a 9-3 victory over Deerfield-Windsor (DWS) on Tuesday, March 26, at Southland Academy (SA).
With the win, the Raiders improve to 7-4 overall and 2-1 in the Region 3-AAA standings.
“We’ve been playing good baseball for about a week now. We’ve got this thing headed in the right direction,” SA head coach John Brady said. “We kept it going today. We put some good swings on the ball and played good defense. Hunter pitched great. He had one inning where he got behind in the count a couple of times, but other than that, he was outstanding.”
The Knights got on the board first in the top of the second inning. Drew Reich led off the inning with a double, stole third base and scored on an error.
The Raiders responded in their half of the inning when Luke Law led off with a single and stole second base. His brother, Landon Law, reached on an error. After George Wall struck out for the first out of the inning, both Owen Exley and Nathan Duke were both hit by pitches from DWS starting pitcher Jack Kimbrel. Duke drove in a run when he was hit. Freddie Updike hit a sacrifice fly to score another run for the Raiders, giving them a 2-1 lead going into the third.
The Raiders blew the game open in the bottom of the third by scoring five runs on two hits. They also took advantage of a walk and two hit batsman by Kimbrel, as well as an error. Both Landon Law and George Wall earned RBIs by getting hit by pitches. Owen Exley drove in two more runs by hitting a double to center field.
The Knights scored two runs in the top of the fifth, but the Raiders responded with two more insurance runs in their half of the inning to secure the victory.
Landon Law continued his hot and timely hitting by going 2 for 3 at the plate. Law scored two runs and drove in two RBIs. Law was the hero in last Saturday’s extra-inning affair against Glenwood when he belted a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to give the Raiders a 6-5 victory. Owen Exley went 1 for 2 at the plate, scored a run and drove in two RBIs. Luke Law went 1 for 3 and scored two runs.
The Raiders scored nine runs on seven hits and committed one error, while DWS scored three runs on four hits and committed four errors.
Kimbrel took the loss for the Knights. He pitched two innings, giving up three runs on seven hits. He walked one batter and struck out one.
The Raiders will travel down to Albany to face the Knights once again on Thursday, March 28, in the second leg of a two-game series between the two teams. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.