Barnwell overcomes early 5-run deficit to pick up 15-9 baseball win over Woodland

           Dorchester — Having defeated Woodland High School by 10 runs earlier in the week, the Barnwell Warhorses felt the sting of an early 5-0 deficit after the first inning in the Region 6-AA rematch against the Wolverines on Friday at the WHS field.

           However, Barnwell scored 14 runs over the last three innings to pull out a 15-9 region win.

           BHS improved to 13-5 on the season and 5-0 in region play.

           After the come-from-behind win, Barnwell head coach Cody McCollum told High School Sports Report, “We preach all the time about playing all 21 outs. We spotted them five runs in the first inning, and we just had to keep battling and play all 21 outs. In the last three innings of the game, we scored 14 runs.

           “I just told them in the huddle talk after the game that you have to be able to barrel the hits up in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings with the game on the line, and that is what we did today. Trey Boleman didn’t have a good game on the mound tonight, but he had

two or three clutch hits for us. Of course, the 2-run homer by Cameron Austin gave us the

lead, but we gave it right back to the them in the bottom of the inning. Jaevin Santos had some key hit for us also.”

           Barnwell will play Hampton County twice this week and Barnwell has to make

up a game with Edisto also.

           “Usually, our pitching and our defense are the strengths of the team but tonight it was the bats that helped us get the win,” McCollum said. “We were able to get hits with runners in

scoring position and we were able to lean on some doubles tonight also. It was a complete team effort.”

           Woodland head coach Keith Lowman was frustrated after the game with his team not being able to hold a big lead it established in the first inning.

           “We have not had consistent pitching all year and it hurt us again tonight,” said Lowman. “We started off the game with the big first inning, lost the lead, regained the lead, and then we could not finish out the game. Our pitchers need to learn to stay ahead in the counts and throw strikes."

           Woodland can still place second in the region, but it needs to at least spilt with Edisto in their two games this week. The run differential tie-breaking system will be used if they split.

           Woodland is now 9-6 after starting the season 8-0.

           “We started the season off hot at 8-0 and then we faced some bigger schools who had more depth,” said Lowman, whose team faced schools like Berkeley and Bluffton in tournaments. The one thing we need to improve on the most in our next game is pitching. We are scoring runs and getting help out of the back end of our lineup, but we need to throw strikes.”

          After Woodland plated five runs in the first inning off of Barnwell starting pitcher Boleman, the Warhorses battled back to take a 6-5 lead in the top of the fifth. Santos reached on a hit by pitch followed by a walk to Austin. Bolemen then ripped a single to left-

center field scoring two runs, after the ball got by the outfielder. A sacrifice bunt two batters later by Bradley Richardson scored Boleman to tie the game at 5. A double by eighth-grader Case Davis brought in Richardson and put Barnwell up 6-5.

         In the top of the sixth, Austin hit the 2-run home run to give Barnwell an 8-6 lead. In the bottom of the sixth, Woodland regained the lead at 9-8 after Hayden Waggoner scored on a wild pitch. 

        Barnwell scored seven runs in the top of the seventh, sending 12 batters to the plate. Runi-scoring single by T Reid, Santos, Boleman, and Hayden Pierce highlighted the big inning for the Warhorses.

        Woodland was led at the plate by senior Ty Overly, who had three hits. Junior designated hitter Hunter Gokey had two hits and one RBI. Eighth-grader Mac Milligan had a hit, and starting pitcher Waggoner had an RBI. Senior James Smoak had a hit and two RBI.

        Davis came in and gave Barnwell five strong innings of relief on the mound, with five strikeouts, before Santos closed out the bottom of the seventh with two strikeouts.

        As a team Barnwell collected 15 hits. Santos had three hits and one RBI, Boleman had three hits and four RBI and Pierce had two hits and two RBI.

       Catcher Kaleb McCormack had two hits and one RBI, while Davis had two hits and one RBI.

       Austin had the home run and two RBI, and he made several nice catches in the power alley in center field. T Reid had a hit with two RBI, while V Gibson also had one hit and one RBI.