Holly Springs bats come alive in 10-0 crushing of SWAC rival Apex
If the Holly Springs baseball team’s bats get going, look out.
The Golden Hawks rapped 12 hits in shutting out Southwest Wake Athletic Conference rival Apex 10-0 in six innings. Holly Springs has a 19-1 advantage now in its two wins, while falling twice by one runs by a combined 4-2 score.
“We’ve just got to continue to try and get good at-bats,” Hawks coach Rod Whitesell said. “Tonight, we had good at-bats overall. Two guys got down 0-2 and fought back and got hits. All we need to continue to do is have quality at-bats the entire game. … If we put it together, we’ll be a solid team.”
With one out in the second, Holly Springs got three singles in a row by Cameron Ellington, Cole Hoops and Brandan George to go up 1-0. On George’s hit, an error in the outfield advanced the runners to second and third, which allowed Owen Henry’s grounder to make it 2-0.
Ellington was 3 for 3 to pace the Hawks (2-2 overall, 1-1 SWAC).
“When we snowball, we kind of go down hard,” Ellington said of the importance of a quick start against a good team. “It’s a matter of putting the fire out early and then going out there with the right mentality with the intention of finding something good to hit.”
First baseman Ethan Miles then deposited a 1-0 fastball over the left-field fence for a 4-0 cushion.
Miles said the run-rule victory was nice.
“It’s pretty big, feels good to come back after a tough loss and crush a team,” he said. “We’ve just got to turn it up. Obviously, we crushed the ball today. Just comes from playing as a team. Squaring up on the ball and swinging at good pitches.”
Holly Springs opened up the lead in the fourth with three more, with Matt Willadsen getting an RBI single and Tyler Babin a two-RBI single.
The final three runs came via back-to-back bases-loaded walks by Andrew Dicostanzo and Mack Cruze and an RBI single from Brian Chesanek.
C.J. Conrad was 3 for 3 with a double for Apex (2-2, 2-1). Cameron Roof also had a double.
This story was originally published March 7, 2017 at 10:20 PM with the headline "Holly Springs bats come alive in 10-0 crushing of SWAC rival Apex."