Pine Forest atones for no-hitter with rout at Triton

by | Apr 6, 2023 | Triton

Jalen Evans of Triton makes a catch for an out on Wednesday night.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

One night after Triton’s varsity baseball team won a 5-0 no-hitter by junior Braxton Davis at All American 3-A/4-A Conference opponent Pine Forest, the Trojans got payback at Triton by winning 21-5 in five innings Wednesday.

“Tonight was definitely tough to watch,” said Triton coach David Reece. “Pine Forest is a really good team and they’re a team that if you take them lightly, something like this happens. Tom (Willoughby) is a great coach. After last night, I think our boys kind of took a step backwards. We weren’t really there mentally offensively or defensively. We just couldn’t get it going.”

Junior starter Jonathan Strickland was the winning pitcher for the Trojans (9-7, 7-3 AAC), giving up two earned runs on seven hits, six walks and two hit batters, with two strikeouts in four-and-two-thirds innings. Senior Aiden Autry struck out the lone batter he faced.

Senior Jalen Evans had two hits, a double and a triple, two RBIs and two runs scored. Davis had two doubles and two RBIs to lead the Hawks (11-3, 6-3).

Kolton Sherman had one hit, one RBI and one run scored. Anthony Jones had one hit and one run scored. Ross Stevens had one hit. Hayden Campbell scored once.

Strickland had three hits, including two doubles, two RBIs and three runs scored. Freshman Ryan Temple had two hits, four RBIs and two runs scored to lead the Trojans.

Triton scored first when Evans led off the bottom of the first inning with a triple and scored when Davis
followed with a double.

Pine Forest put four runs on the board in the second inning, three in the third and six in the fourth.

In the bottom of the fourth, Evans drew a walk and scored on another double from Davis. The Trojans added eight more runs in the top of the fifth.

Jones had a base hit to lead off the bottom of the fifth, advanced on a passed ball and a ground ball from Isaac Bennett and scored on a pinch hit single from Sherman. Campbell and William Meredith drew walks to load the bases and Evans doubled to score Sherman and Campbell. But Autry came on to pitch and ended the game with a strikeout.

Triton plays North Johnston in the Golden Leaf Invitational at Fleming Stadium in Wilson on Saturday at 3 p.m.

“We’ve just got to worry about the next one,” Reece said. “The most important game is always the next one in my book. We’ve just got to flush it and learn from our mistakes that we made and go out and take care of business the next time. We know what we’ve got to work on and we know what we’ve got to do in practice to fix our mistakes. We’ve just got to do it.”

Braxton Davis drives in a run with a double for the Hawks.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Ross Stevens gets a base hit for the host Hawks against Pine Forest.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Kolton Sherman gets an RBI with a hit for Triton on Wednesday night.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

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