COVINGTON, Ga. — The Newton Rams earned the series win over the Archer Tiger this past Friday during a doubleheader on the Rams’ home diamond.

A strong offensive showing in game one allowed the Rams to earn the series win before Archer salvaged the final game with a 2-0 win.

Newton’s Chris Guillory started the opening game of the doubleheader on Friday and the Tigers managed to score a pair of the Kennesaw State-commit in the first.

Guillory hit Archer leadoff man Jamel Ambler to begin the game, but the junior managed to get back-to-back outs on just four pitches.

However, Archer’s Grant Thurmond singled into left field to score Ambler. In the next at-bat, a costly error from second baseman Brandon Scott allowed a second Tigers’ run to score to make it a 2-0 lead for Archer.

Guillory earned the strikeout to get out of the inning.

In the bottom of the first inning, Archer’s Kaleb Watkins pitched a scoreless frame as he induced three ground ball-outs from the Rams.

Guillory seemed to settle in after giving up a pair of runs in the first as he struck out a pair of batters to go one-two-three.

Newton scored its first run of the game late in the second inning.

After the Rams managed to load the bases with one out, a sacrifice fly from Kris Ross trimmed Archer’s lead down to 2-1.

With two runners still on base, Kendall Turner grounded out to the shortstop to end the inning.

The Tigers grabbed a two-out single off Guillory in the third, but were unable to do anything with it.

After another scoreless frame from Guillory, the Rams took advantage and grabbed the lead.

Following a leadoff single from Guillory, Caden Brown went on to score him on a RBI single to tie the game at 2-2.

After Devonate Hardeman reached on what was labeled a fielder’s choice, Scott scored Brown on a sacrifice fly to right field to take a 3-2 lead.

Hardeman later scored on a passed ball to give Newton a 4-2 lead heading into the top of the fourth.

Archer led off the fourth inning with a single, but Guillory maneuvered around to escape the inning without any runs scored.

In the bottom of the fourth frame, Ross led off with an infield single. In the next at-bat, Turner scored him on a RBI double to left field.

Two batters later, Dare’On Adkins made it a 6-2 lead on an RBI single into center field, and Newton was not done there.

RBI knocks from Hardeman and Francis extended Newton’s lead to 8-2.

Archer scored its final run of the game early in the fifth inning following a leadoff single from Ambler.

An error from Scott on the infield allowed Ambler to score on a grounder from Bailey.

In the ensuing frame, Brown gave Newton the run back and more.

Ross singled to leadoff the inning and Guillory later walked to send Brown to the plate with two runners on base and two outs.

One pitch is all the senior needed as he sent the ball well beyond the left field wall for a three-run home to really break the game open in the late innings.

Brown’s three-run tank gave Newton a 11-3 lead heading into the sixth inning.

After another scoreless frame from Guillory, the Rams put two more runs on the board in the bottom half of the frame to end the game via run rule.

With the bases loaded, Turner sent a fly ball into left field to score Scott on a sacrifice fly.

In the next at-bat, Guillory capped off his strong day with a RBI single to score the game’s final run at 13-3.

Guillory went the complete six innings for Newton and allowed six hits and only one earned run while he struck out five batters.

At the plate, Guillory went 2-for-4 with one RBI.

Brown finished his day with a 2-for-4 line with four RBIs, two runs and the one home run.

Francis and Ross also tallied multi-hit games in the win.

The second game of the doubleheader proved to be a pitcher’s duel between Newton’s Ross and Archer’s Noah Parsons.

Both Ross and Parson pitched six innings, but the Tiger’s ultimately pulled away with a 2-0 win.

The two runs for Archer came in the top of the fourth.

After an error from Guillory at third and a single from Sean Gates put two runners on base, another error on the infield allowed both runners to score.

Although Newton out-hit Archer 7-2 in the final game, the Rams were unable to get any runs across.

Newton had early chances to score, but a few costly outs on the basepaths in the first two innings derailed scoring opportunities.

The Rams had the bases loaded in the fourth inning, but a key strikeout from Parsons allowed him to escape the jam.

The same instance happened in the bottom of the sixth inning with the bases loaded, but Parson once again got the strikeout.

Thurmond took over on the mound in the final inning and pitched a scoreless frame to end the game with a 2-0 win for Archer.

Ross went six innings for Newton and neither of the two runs were earned. Ross allowed two hits, two walks and struck out four batters.

Josh Brown took over in the seventh inning for Ross and pitched a scoreless frame with no hits and two strikeouts.

Adkins, Hardeman and Jayce Yearwood came away with multi-hit games.

What’s next

The win moved Newton to 15-11 on the season and 10-5 in Region 4-AAAAAA play(third place).

Next up for Newton is a matchup with Mount Vernon Friday, April 11 before a three-game series with South Gwinnett that begins on Monday, April 14.