The Warrenton Warriors bounced back from a pair of losses Friday to beat conference foe Winfield last weekend at the Fort Zumwalt North baseball tournament.
Warrenton defeated Winfield 11-5 Saturday. Warrenton and Winfield had split their other two matchups this season. The win came after Warrenton dropped a pair of games to Fort Zumwalt North and Priory one day earlier.
“Today was just about us and getting better really,” Warrenton baseball coach Eric Burle said. “Win, lose or draw, that’s what we really needed to do. Get better. Because yesterday, we didn’t get better.”
Warrenton led the game 3-0 after the first inning. Winfield scored three runs in the top of the second inning to tie the game 3-3.
Warrenton scored two runs in the bottom half of the second inning to take a 5-3 lead. They led the rest of the game.
Dylan Beck led off the inning and was hit by a pitch. Beck advanced to second on Ben Peth’s infield single. Leadoff hitter Troy Anderson followed up Peth’s single with an RBI double to give Warrenton the lead. Peth scored the second run of the inning on Caleb Clark’s RBI groundout.
After starting pitcher Joe Goldsmith faced one batter in the third inning, Beck replaced Goldsmith on the mound. Beck threw the last five innings for Warrenton.
“We started some guys that really hadn’t pitched much all year,” Burle said. “Joe came out and gave us a good start to the game. And then Dylan pitched well too. Threw strikes. That was the important thing. Throwing strikes. We swung the bat today.”
After Beck threw a scoreless third inning, Warrenton scored three more runs in the bottom of the third inning. Tyler Oliver led off the inning with a walk and Goldsmith reached base on a ground ball in the infield. Catcher Austin Haas’ sacrifice bunt moved Oliver and Goldsmith to second and third base with one out. Beck hit a double, scoring both Oliver and Goldsmith. Anderson reached on an error later in the inning, allowing Beck to score Warrenton’s eighth run of the game.
Warrenton added one run in the fourth inning and two runs in the fifth inning. Oliver hit a two-run single in the fifth inning.
“Early on, every inning was scoring runs,” Burle said. “And then whenever they came back and I think tied it up maybe, we were able to come back the very next inning and answer. So that was big because they tied it up and we were able to come back and answer with two more runs. I think just being able to put runs up almost every inning was huge to put stress on them.”
Winfield added two runs in the seventh inning before Warrenton recorded a double play to end the game.
On Friday, Warrenton lost to Fort Zumwalt North 6-0 in the opening game of the tournament. They lost to Priory 14-9 in the second game of the day.
In the game against Priory, Warrenton scored six runs in the fourth and fifth innings after falling behind 4-0 to claim a lead going into the sixth inning.
The Warriors scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Warrenton loaded the bases in the fourth inning with one out on a single by Oliver and walks by Goldsmith and Collin Disilvister. Peth hit a three-RBI triple in the right field corner to pull Warrenton within one run. After Anderson struck out, Clark hit a fly ball to center field with two outs in the inning. The Priory center fielder did not catch the ball and Peth scored the fourth run to tie the game.
Sam Wortham threw a scoreless fifth inning. Warrenton then added two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to give the Warriors a 6-4 lead. With one out, Goldsmith hit a triple and Haas walked to put two runners on base. Disilvister hit a single, scoring both Goldsmith and Haas. Haas had advanced to second base in the middle of the at-bat.
“We battled back and took a lead,” Burle said.
Priory scored eight runs in the top of the sixth inning. After Warrenton scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to trim the Priory lead to three runs, Priory scored two runs in the seventh inning. Warrenton did not score in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“We just didn’t play very good baseball today,” Burle said Friday. “We didn’t play very clean baseball. A lot of stuff we’ve talked about like the small stuff led to big stuff today. We had some small plays where we weren’t backing stuff up or making some simple plays in the field, hitting our cutoffs, those type of things that led to a big inning.”
Warrenton squared off against Elsberry Wednesday. They are slated to play at Duchesne today. They are scheduled to host Gateway High School Friday.