BUFORD — After a sloppy performance Monday in a 9-8 loss to Class AAAA No. 7 Madison County, Buford coach Tony Wolfe felt Wednesday’s rematch could be a key to the Region 8-AAAA crown for either team.
“It was a big game because a sweep would (make) it tough for us to win the region because they would have a one-game lead with tiebreakers,” Wolfe said. “If we can get a win, then we’d have a two-game lead.”
It wasn’t their best performance Wednesday, but it was a marked improvement that resulted in a 10-2 victory at Gerald McQuaig Field. The win gave No. 2 Buford (16-3, 9-1 Region 8-AAAA) a split in the series and the Wolves now lead the Red Raiders (18-3, 9-3) by a full game and it snapped Madison County’s nine-game win streak.
Sophomore Noah Ledford led the offense with a double, home run, and three RBI while senior Justin Glover provided a good enough effort on the hill giving up two runs (one earned) on six hits and two walks while fanning 10 in six innings.
“Justin didn’t have his best stuff but we asked him to go on four days rest and that may have had something to do with that,” Wolfe said. “But he battled and gave us a chance.”
Ledford gave the Wolves the lead in the second with his double and then extended it to 5-0 with a two-run blast in the fourth.
“I felt dialed in (tonight),” Ledford said. “Probably the best I’ve hit from the right side. We wanted to come out and start fast. We knew we had to get it done (tonight).”
Wolfe said it was good to see Ledford get going.
“That was a big home run for us. I thought we were better overall than we were Monday but we’re still not where I would like us to be.”
Buford will travel to last-place Johnson on Friday to start a two-game series while Madison County, which dropped to third place with Wednesday’s loss, will open a two-game series at home against second place North Oconee.
On Wednesday, Glover rolled through the first inning getting a pair of groundouts back to the mound to go with a strikeout.
Red Raider’s starter Holton McGaha was equal to the task early for Madison County working around a pair of walks in the first inning. Austin Wilhite reached with one out, stole second, and then Griffin Jolliff walked with two out. But McGaha got out of the jam getting Glover to fly out to right.
The Red Raiders opened the second inning with back-to-back singles by Golston Gillespie and Noah Rogers with no outs but Glover was able to get out of that jam with a pair of strikeouts sandwiched around a fielder’s choice at third to keep the game scoreless.
Glover got into a groove from there fanning four of the next five batters through the third inning while the offense went to work against McGaha.
Buford took that momentum into the bottom of the second. Dillon Lancaster beat out an infield single to start it and Ledford doubled to left-center with Lancaster scoring from first for a 1-0 lead. McGaha almost got out of the mess getting Nathan Haines to line into a double play at first. But Brandon Marsh reached on a third-strike wild pitch and Ledford and Marsh moved to second and third on another wild pitch and both scored on a single by Austin Wilhite for a 3-0 lead.
Ledford continued his hot hitting belting a two-run home run in the third after Glover walked to push the Wolves’ lead to 5-0.
The Red Raiders broke through in the fourth plating an unearned run to cut the lead to 5-1 but stranded a pair of base runners when Glover fanned Wyatt Wood to end the inning.
Buford got the run back in the bottom of the fourth and put the game out of reach at the same time.
Marsh walked and stole second to to start the inning and Austin Wilhite singled to right driving in Marsh, his third RBI to that point, for a 6-1 lead. Griffin Jolliff singled and Glover doubled both runners in for an 8-1 lead.
Madison County replaced McGaha with Josh Cotton with two out in the fourth with the bases loaded after he hit Ledford and walked Thames Hudlow. McGaha lasted just 3 2/3 innings giving up eight runs on eight hits with six walks.
Josh Cotton got Haines to fly out to deep right to get out of the fourth inning with no more damage.
The Red Raiders got a run back in the fifth when Ethan South tripled and scored on a groundout by Tyler Griffeth to cut it to 8-2. They got back-to-back singles by Dylan Gentry and Gillespie but Glover got out of the inning striking out Nate Potterfield and Zack Kerns.
Buford added two more in the sixth on a two-run home run off the scoreboard by Jolliff for a 10-2 advantage.
Austin Wilhite replaced Glover to start the seventh and closed out the game working around a pair of walks by striking out the side. Glover went six innings yielding six hits and just one earned run while and fanning 10 to get the win.
