BUFORD — Buford baseball coach Tony Wolfe is pleased his Wolves are riding a 10-game winning streak after pummeling South Gwinnett 12-2 in five innings Thursday at McQuaig Field.
But he knows it won’t mean much when they begin the heart of their Region 8-AAAAA schedule on Monday if they don’t continue to improve. Buford travels to Westminster on Friday in a non-region contest before beginning a six-game sprint to the finish against the other top three teams in Region 8-AAAAA.
The Wolves will take on Flowery Branch, Loganville, and Walnut Grove in succession in home-and-home series in a round-robin two weeks that will decide the region champion.
“I think we’ve gotten better,” Wolfe said. “But we still have a ways to go. The toughest part of our schedule is about to start so we can’t worry about how many in a row we’ve won right now. We haven’t played since Friday and practice has been spotty with the weather this week so it was just good to just get back out here and play a game.”
Against South Gwinnett (8-12) the story was senior southpaw Frank Bradshaw, who yielded just one hit and struck out 10 in four innings to get the win.
“Frank had command of all three of his pitches. I thought he threw real well,” Wolfe said.
Junior first baseman Noah Ledford powered the Buford offense with three hits, including a double, two RBI, and scored three runs in the cleanup spot.
“Noah has been on fire about the last eight to 10 games,” Wolfe said. “He’s given us what we need in the middle of the lineup. As a whole I like how we’ve been swinging the bats.”
After Bradshaw retired the Comets quickly in order in the top of the first the Wolves offense went to work. Garrison Price was hit by a pitch and moved around to third on a wild pitch and passed ball. Griffin Price walked and advanced to second on another wild pitch. Austin Turner then knocked in Garrison Price with a sacrifice fly to center and Ledford followed with a RBI single scoring Griffin Price. Akira Mitchell drove in Ledford on a RBI single for a 3-0 Buford lead.
Bradshaw mowed down South Gwinnett in order in the second and the Buford offense continued its attack on Comets’ starter Eric Johns pushing the lead to 4-0. Christian Griffin walked, moved to second on a groundout by Griffin Price, and then scored from second when Turner reached on an error.
The Wolves added four more in the third, knocking out Johns, who gave up a walk, two singles, and a two-run double to Preston Hagan. Hagan later scored on a wild pitch from Hunter Moorer, who replaced Johns with no outs in the third, to make it an 8-0 advantage.
At the same time Bradshaw continued his dominance of the Comets’ lineup. Bradshaw fanned nine of the first 11 batters he faced with a groundout and pop up to the catcher the only non strikeouts through the first three innings.
The Comets finally broke through in the fourth when Moorer walked with two out and then scored from first on a RBI double by Dylan Capps. Bradshaw would net one more strikeout to end the fourth and that would be the end of the day for him as Buford brought in Tyler Perkins to start fifth.
South Gwinnett greeted Perkins harshly as Cory Lee singled to begin the fifth, moved to second on a wild pitch, and then scored on a RBI single by Jairus Smith to cut the lead to 8-2. But Perkins rallied to retire the next three batters to get out of the inning.
Moorer retired seven of the first 10 he faced into the fifth but the wheels fell off after a walk to Griffith. He allowed a walk, three hits, balked in one run, and then gave up the winning run on a wild pitch scoring Ledford for the final score.
