No. 1 Spalding baseball gets 12 strikeouts from Nathan Wines in 7-1 win over Gilman
On a cold, wet Friday night at Pachence Field, the Archbishop Spalding pitching staff brought the heat.
Thanks in part to a dominant 12-strikeout performance on the mound from Nathan Wines, the Cavaliers earned a 7-1 win over Gilman.
The win is the 10th straight for Spalding (14-2), while Gilman fell to 7-12.
The Greyhounds struck first in the top of the first inning. Jute Taylor hammered a fastball deep into center field that turned into a triple. Wyatt Randolph did not waste the opportunity, singling home Taylor to give Gilman the early 1-0 lead.
But that would be the extent of the Greyhounds’ offense.
Wines settled in, mixing a variety of offspeed pitches with a blistering fastball to slow down the Greyhounds’ hitters. Even when he faced a jam, the MSABC preseason All-State honoree and East Carolina commit worked his way out of it by delivering clutch pitches in key moments.
In the fifth, Gilman’s Henry Warnack and Danny Leikus each reached base on one-out singles. After a wild pitch, Wines and the Spalding defense were faced with runners on second and third. But the ace maintained his composure, striking out back-to-back batters to end the inning.
In six innings, Wines allowed just four hits while walking just one batter.
“He had a dominant performance today,” Spalding coach Joe Palumbo said. “He had a little trouble early, but it was good to see him go through that and then really worked his way through that adversity. The top of their lineup has some good hitters. He was able to minimize them and keep the score at one. Then he settled in and was good from there.”
After falling behind, the Cavaliers’ offense came right back, pulling ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the first. After a Gilman error set the table, Drew Emrich lined a single to center field, scoring Cruz Luna and Theo Loughlin.
“They gifted us one there early and you got to take advantage against good teams when they give you an extra out,” Palumbo said. “Drew’s two-out RBI single there put us back on top. We had some traffic [on the bases] and some good pressure on them to help get the win today.”
Spalding put up two more runs in the third inning. Luna scored off a Gilman error, and a bases-loaded walk later made it 5-1.
After already scoring two runs, Luna used his bat to drive one in, hitting a sacrifice fly to center in the fifth that scored Braeden Martin. A double by Inscoe in the sixth brought home Martin to close out the scoring.
Relief pitcher Sam Houchens sealed the victory for Spalding in the seventh, recording a flyout and two strikeouts.