COVINGTON, Ga. – Newton found a comfortable 9-3 win over Heritage on Wednesday evening. In the third inning, Jeremiah Francis hit a screamer over the left-field wall for a two-run home run to put a cap on the decisive Rams win despite a late push from the Patriots.
The win for Newton in their region opener improved them to 5-1 overall.
The Rams' offense was relentless as they scored in five straight innings to take a 9-0 lead heading into the top of the sixth.
Newton put up one run in the first, thanks to a Kendall Turner single and steal before he was batted in by Dare’On Adkins.
A three-up, three-down top of the second put the Rams back at the plate where two scored on a sac fly from Robert Jackson.
Then, the Rams piled on four runs in the bottom of the third, thanks to two singles, a double and the Francis homer all in succession.
The momentum was all in favor of the Rams from that point onwards.
The Rams would score one more run in each of the fourth and fifth innings, thanks mostly to errors from the Heritage defense and two sac flies.
Heritage started to form the makings of a comeback, but did not have nearly enough time as it scored three in the sixth but were unable to get anything in the top of the seventh.
Seven different batters managed to connect at the plate and get a hit in the win. At the plate, Newton was led by a two-for-two outing from the first baseman Adkins.
Newton had a great day on the mound as well.
Chris Guillory pitched four shutout innings. In that span, Guillory had nine of the team’s 11 total strikeouts and would’ve been perfect on the mound if not for just one walk.
Guillory was on pace to pitch a no hitter as a staggering 66 percent of the Rams’ total pitches found their way into the strike zone.
The Patriots didn’t do themselves any favors either on Wednesday, as they racked up five total errors to make things even easier for an already clicking Rams squad.
Newton will face Heritage one more time, this time on the road to start the weekend off.
If the Rams can pull together a performance in any way similar to what they did on Wednesday, they will secure a sweep over Heritage to start region play.
After that, the Rams will have a single game Saturday against Fellowship Christian and then will return to region play with a three-game series against Grayson.
