Andrew Jackson Baseball Makes Vast Improvement this Season
By Billy Baker
Publisher
Ehrhardt—Following the state championship run by the Andrew Jackson Academy baseball team head coach Jason Mathys shared some of his thoughts about the team’s vast improvement this season with The High Schol Sports Report.
“The MVP of the team was our senior leader Jack Walling,” said Coach Mathys. “He threw strikes on the mound and his base running speed were factors for him getting better, plus he was out top hitter.”
“Our two 8th graders made huge contributions to the team (Channing Terry was our top pitcher in region and Kaiden Kinard was one of our top offensive players)
We are losing four starters but five are returning Once we got in the play-off, we showed a lot of guts and kept fighting and coming from behind and I am very proud of the entire team,” said Coach Mathys.
Walling hit .471 with 32 RBI’s including 15 doubles and two home runs. Hayden McClung hit /436 with 17 RBI’s and Kinard was at .424 with 23 RBI’s.
In the pitching department Terry had 49 K’s in 47.2 inning pitched with an ERA of 2.64. Walling had 38 K’s in 31 innings of work. Landon Johnson pitched 24.1 innings with 47 K’s.
Here are some key moments for AJA in their narrow 6-5 loss to Lee Academy in game one of the SCISA AA baseball finals.
In the bottom of the 4th, AJA pushed across a run. Johnson reached on a hit-by-pitch and scored two batters later on an RBI single by Eli Mathys to make it 5-1.
In the top of the 5th Lee Academy added a very important insurance run that ended up being the difference in the game. Rodgers reached on a hit-by-pitch, stole second, and scored on a throwing error to make it 6-1.
In the bottom of the 5th AJA plated two runs to trail 6-3. Kaiden Kinard struck-out, but the catcher dropped the ball and he was able to reach first safely ahead of the throw. Kinard then stole second and scored on Jack Walling’s single. Walling stole second and third and scored on a fielder’s choice RBI by Channing Terry to cut the deficit to 6-3.
In the bottom of the 6th inning, it was a picture of good and bad for the Warriors. Brad Hightower and Mathys led off with back-to-back singles, and then Hall Sease drew a walk to load the bases with no-outs. Hayden McClung singled in Hightower to make it 6-4 and then Kinard then drew a bases loaded RBI walk to bring in Mathy’s and a heads up play by Sease made it 6-5 when he ran in right behind Mathy’s on a throwing error.
