Heritage gets bats going in 5-2 baseball win at Ringgold

Ringgold's Hunter Foskey misses the ball at second as Heritage's Luke Grant slides in safely Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at Ringgold High School.
Ringgold's Hunter Foskey misses the ball at second as Heritage's Luke Grant slides in safely Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at Ringgold High School.
photo Ringgold's Garrett Wilbanks pitches in the game against Heritage Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at Ringgold High School.
photo Heritage's Cole Wilcox pitches against Ringgold Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at Ringgold High School.
photo Ringgold's Devin Lancaster makes the catch as Heritage's Blake Bryan slides safely back to first Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at Ringgold High School.

RINGGOLD, Ga. - Following a three-hit first inning in Tuesday's nonregion baseball game at Ringgold High School, some Heritage fans were heard joking that the Generals' hit quota already had been reached.

Those fans were even happier later when Heritage put two two-run frames together, giving super sophomore Cole Wilcox more than enough run support in a 5-2 win.

"It was good to kind of get the bats going a little bit," said Heritage coach Eric Beagles, whose 3-4 team had been limited to three or fewer runs in five of its previous six games. "We've seen some good folks, so you have to tip your cap to them, but tonight was good to get some good at-bats and put the bat on the ball."

Though the Generals struck out eight times in the first three innings against Ringgold starter Garrett Wilbanks, they made their hits - and opportunities - count for a 3-0 lead after three innings.

A Noah Hill single after two out in the first was followed by singles by Wilcox and Jonathan Hickman for a 1-0 lead. Heritage scored two in the third on just one hit, a leadoff single by Luke Grant, but a wild pitch on a swinging third strike to Hill put runners on second and first.

Grant took third on a ball that escaped the Ringgold catcher by just a foot, and when Hill stole second one pitch later, the throw went into center field, allowing Grant to score and Hill to take third. The nightmare inning for the Tigers continued as Wilbanks uncorked another wild pitch and Hill scored to make it 3-0.

"Some of these guys are rabbits," Beagles said of the top of his order. "They're young but they can run, and when we get in the situations we like to make some things happen with them."

Wilcox, who allowed a pair of two-out singles in the first inning, sat down the Ringgold lineup in order in the second and third innings. However, A Tyler Nichols one-out single in the fourth was followed an out later by Noah Parrish's two-run homer to right to cut the Heritage lead to one.

The Generals, though, answered in the fifth as Ringgold reliever Nathan Camp made the mistake of leading off the inning by walking Grant and Hill. A long flyout by Wilcox, with Grant taking third, and a wild pitch forced Ringgold coach Brent Tucker to walk Hickman to load the bases.

The strategy nearly worked as Camp struck out Joseph Hill, but Josh Gibson foiled it by stroking a two-run single to center for a 5-2 lead.

"The big thing I'm proud of tonight was after we gave up that two-spot in the fourth inning we came back and answered in the fifth," Beagles said. "We stress that a lot, the shutdown innings and bounce-back innings, because we've had some rocky ones and sometimes they've been hard to overcome."

Wilcox made the runs stand up, allowing only a single and a walk the rest of the way to improve to 2-1.

"I really like the team's effort tonight," said Wilcox, who committed to the University of Georgia last year. "I didn't have my best stuff, so I just concentrated on pounding the zone and letting my guys make plays."

Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22.

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