The temperature outside may have dipped a bit this week, the Wolves Varsity Baseball team stayed Red Hot!
On the way to their 10th & 11th consecutive wins, the Wolves took down the Black Knights of Central Gwinnett by scores of 14-4 & 16-1 across both games of the doubleheader. Including Monday’s previous win over the Black Knights, the Wolves swept the 3-game series and outscored their region 8-AAAAAAA opponent by a combined score of 49-5.
The Senior Night festivities began as all ten seniors on this year’s squad were introduced and escorted onto the field by their parents during pre-game. This year’s senior class includes Ethan Murray, Nate Taylor, Jacob Nixon, Sam Humphries, Chase Scarbrough, Brayden Bickers, Damien Brown, Jayden Clark, Madden Young, and Blake Russell. Many of these seniors are committed to continuing their baseball careers at the collegiate level.
During the first game of the doubleheader, the Wolves started with an all-senior lineup. The team quickly gained momentum when senior Jacob Nixon struck out two of the first three batters he faced in the top of the first inning. The offense then took the lead that the Wolves would not relinquish with a 4-run outburst that included a 3-run triple by Chase Scarbrough after battling in a 9-pitch at-bat off of Central Gwinnett starting pitcher Aiden Keizer. 
Nixon added 3 more shutout innings while striking out 7 and gaining his first win of the season before giving way to Sohan Patel in the 5th inning. The offense continued to shine as Madden Young and Blake Russell each delivered 3 hits for the Wolves and Russell drove in 5 total runs for the game. When Brayden Bickers lifted a sacrifice fly that completed a 7-run bottom of the 5th inning, the lead was pushed to 10 for the Wolves and the game was ended due to GHSA’s 10-run rule.
Despite an entirely different starting lineup for Buford, the second game of the evening featured more of the same. Thanks to a Central Gwinnett error and a Jayden Clark single in the bottom of the first inning, the Wolves took a 2-run lead and never looked back. In the bottom of the 4th inning, Buford pushed 8 runs across the plate thanks to base hits from Graham Young, Ian Chafin, and Zachary Sipe, and was aided by the fact that the Black Knights pitching issued 3 walks to Kanon Nelson, Harrison Zagrodnik, and Luke Sipe along the way. With a 15-run lead in the bottom of the 4th, the game ended in Buford’s favor.
Braden Burton pitched all four innings for the Wolves and got the win, allowing only 2 hits and 1 UNearned run in the start.
Next up for The Wolves is a trip across the county for a road game at Grayson High School to take on the Rams in a non-region AAAAAAA matchup on Monday, April 1st! (no fooling)
