Monday, Mar. 08, 2010

Homers key West's win

West Johnston used lumber and lightning in posting a 10-2 non-conference baseball victory over county rival South Johnston Friday evening at Bruce Coats Field.

Despite managing only six hits against South's erratic pitching, the Wildcats slammed four home runs en route to the victory, including a lead-off shot by Brandon Tant and a three-run shot by pinch hitter C. J. Frederick.

The lightning was provided by Wildcats starting right-hander Tyler Tant, who fanned eight batters while walking two and allowing a pair of hits over six scoreless innings as West improved to 2-0 on the season.

West topped county rival Princeton, 3-2 in the season lid-lifter for those teams on March 1.

South, which fell to Clayton 10-1 last Wednesday, dipped to 0-2 for the year.

Brandon Tant's shot, a twisting blast that turned Trojans right fielder Logan Jernigan around twice, came on a 2-1 pitch and just cleared the fence 15 feet inside the right-field foul pole to give West a 1-0 lead.

The homer came off starting pitcher Casey Lee, who lasted one batter into the third inning. Brandon Tant's blast was the first of two round-trippers off Lee, the second coming off the bat of Lance Morgan to open the second inning.

Morgan's went to the power alley in left, on a 3-2 delivery, and gave the Wildcats a 3-0 lead.

West's other hit off Lee was a double to center by Bradley Ragan, immediately following Tant's homer.

West Johnston took advantage of Lee's wildness and the Trojans' shaky defense, plating Ragan on a wild pitch by Lee and an infield error.

Frederick's three-run shot, also to right, highlighted a four-run seventh-inning by the Wildcats.

West finally began to hit reliever Trey Thompson in the seventh, with Ryan Hunnicutt belting a lead-off homer for a 7-0 Wildcats lead. Thompson walked the next two batters before Frederick went deep to right.

The Trojans, who managed only four hits in the game, struck for two runs in the bottom half of the seventh, taking advantage of a pair of Wildcats errors.

Blake Johnson reached on a throwing error, moved to second on a balk and scored on a wild Wildcat throw to first on a grounder by Jesse Holmes.

Holmes took second on the errant throw, then moved to third, barely beating out the return throw on a corner-to-corner double-play attempt on Austin Lee's grounder.

Bass then lifted a fly to deep right to score Holmes with the final run.