Windsor storms back – times two
Published 1:16 pm Monday, June 18, 2012
WINDSOR – Windsor’s Post 37 American Legion junior baseball team cracked the eight-win mark Saturday thanks to a pair of victories with similar outcomes.
In both games, at the Bertie High School baseball field, Windsor spotted Edenton Post 40 a seven-run lead before storming from behind to claim the twinbill; winning by a football-like 18-12 in the first game and 12-8 in the second.
“Shows a lot about the character of the kids, because they fight hard,” said Windsor coach Bobby Harmon, with a sly grin.
“Give Edenton credit for battling us, but with some of our players missing because of the State Games and some others nicked-up and banged-up, we’ve been working hard in practice and it’s starting to show on the field,” he added.
For the two games, Patrick Castelloe wielded the big lumber: going 6-for-7, scoring four times and driving in a quartet of runs as well. Alex Harmon went 3-for-4 in the first game with an RBI and scored a run.
On the mound, Quinton Reynolds got the win in relief of Dallas Belch in the first game while Matthew Weaver picked up similar honors relieving Tyler Baker in the nightcap.
“I was really proud of the way those guys kept us in the ball game,” said Harmon.
Edenton batted around in the first inning of game one. They had built a lead of 8-1 by the top of the third when Reynolds came on as Windsor’s third pitcher.
Post 37 got their lone run in the bottom of the first inning when Harmon and Castelloe got back-to-back base hits, the second of which scored Michael Scott.
In the third inning Castelloe walked and moved to second on a Christian Bland single. Edenton then balked, moving both runners into scoring position. Cody Elliott followed with a ground-out, but good enough to score Castelloe and make the deficit 8-2.
Then came the pivotal fourth inning when the bats on both sides were active.
Edenton scored a pair of runs to lead i, 10-2 and it looked like things may have been headed to a shortened game.
However, Windsor scored four times in the frame to trim Edenton’s bulge to 10-6; scoring once on a passed-ball and then on RBI’s by Castelloe, Harmon and Bland.
In the fifth inning, Windsor totally refocused, sending 10 men to the plate and scoring six runs on six hits to seize a 12-10 lead. One of the blows was a Belch triple that plated a pair and Castelloe also drove in two runs.
Then, in a bit of déjà vu, Windsor scored six more in the bottom of the sixth inning. Michael Scott plated two runs on a deep single to right field as part of the three-hit attack.
Edenton got two in the top of the seventh to only lose by six as Windsor posted its fifth conference win.
Game two had almost the same opening script: Edenton getting eight runs in the first two innings to just a single runner making it across for Windsor and an 8-1 Post 40 lead again.
However, that’s all the scoring Edenton would muster as history repeated itself: Windsor got 11 runs in the third inning – five of them unearned – with Castelloe blasting a double that scored a pair and finishing the game going 3-for-3.
Weaver relieved the Windsor starter and claimed the four-run win in relief. It boosted Windsor’s record to 8-2 overall.
“The main thing I kept preaching to the kids when we fell down in both games was to not give up,” said Harmon. “Just keep fighting and see what happens.”
Windsor hosts Ahoskie Wednesday night back at the BHS baseball field.