Wellborn, Weaver will try again
- Updated: March 31, 2015
Area showdown suspended after four batters, Wellborn leading on Denham homer
Brandt Denham connects on a solo homer in the first inning that gave Wellborn a 1-0 lead before rain suspended its game at Weaver.
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
WEAVER – The Weaver-Wellborn series is too important to be played in less than optimal conditions, so the teams will try it again Wednesday.
The teams, battling for the presumptive second spot in their Class 3A area, made a valiantly attempt to get the game in Tuesday, but were chased by rain and hail after only three batters. They’ll pick things up at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the place it was suspended.
That would be with one out in the top of the first with Wellborn leading 1-0, a runner on first and a 0-1 count on cleanup hitter T.J. Salers.
“You don’t want to play in bad field conditions, but you also want to play,” Weaver coach David Beegle said. “That’s the reason we were trying to get it in, so we don’t lose five ballgames at the end of the week. But you don’t want to say we were better than them or they were better than us, we just got lucky on a ball skipped away from somebody or in a mud hole or something like that.”
“If we would’ve helped Coach Beegle and his guys get the field ready, which we were intending to do, it would not have been good for either one of us,” Wellborn coach Shane Harrell said. “Tomorrow it’s supposed to be a lot better, the sun’s supposed to be out, he’ll have time to get the field ready to go. I think tomorrow will be better for both of us.”
Both teams are expected to return their same pitchers to the mound – Weaver’s Jake Garrick and Wellborn’s Ethan Beadles – and Beegle believes the delay will do his pitcher good.
“I think we got a little something out of it; I think it’s going to benefit us, I hope,” Beegle said. “Maybe loosen us up a little bit; that’s what I told (Garrick) on the mound. He’s the loosest person you’ll ever meet. I told him that’s the tightest I’d ever seen you in the four years I’ve ever been around him.”
Before the skies opened, Brandt Denham put the Panthers on top with a solo home run. Landon Machristie followed with a single and promptly stole second.
“I just wanted to jump on top and get out of here,” Denham said.
The Panthers, who crushed Weaver 20-2 Saturday night, may go into the restart with a lead and a runner in scoring position, but Harrell isn’t taking anything for granted.
“I think we need to come out tomorrow be patient with the pitches, but when we get that pitch we want to be aggressive,” he said. “We just have to hit the ball. That’s what we did the other night.
“It’s going to be a dogfight with this series and Pleasant Valley the next. We’ve got to come to play every day. I know that’s what everybody says, but that’s the truth. When you get in these series and each game matters, each pitch matters, you’ve got to play your best game every time you step on the field.”
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