The Winona baseball team had a roller coaster week with a 15-0 loss to Southeast Lauderdale, a 15-1 win over Calhoun Academy and a wild 17-14 loss to Nanih Waiya with the Tigers nearly overcoming an 11-run deficit.
“Against Southeast (Lauderdale) we did nothing offensively,” said Coach Mark Austin. “Against Calhoun, we started hitting and we made plays in the field. We were more fundamentally sound.”
Winona was hitless against Southeast Lauderdale in a four-inning game. The Tigers bounced back with 10 hits against Calhoun Academy. It was only 3-1 through four innings before the Tigers broke through with seven runs in the fifth and five in the sixth, bringing the game to an end.
Garrett Ables and Taylor Barfield each had two hits. Ables, Hagan Ware and Mitch Stewart doubled and Dre Bays drove in three runs. On the mound, Bays, Ables and Blake Cooper held Calhoun Academy to one hit, with nine strikeouts.
Winona trailed Nanih Waiya, the two-time defending 1A state champion, 12-1 after two innings. But the Tigers scored six runs each in the third and four and one in the fifth to pull within one at 15-14.
J.J. Looney had a big game at the plate with two homers, two singles and four RBIs. Dalton Ferguson had two singles and an RBI and Jon Reuben Chesteen doubled, drove in two runs and scored three times.
“I was definitely pleased with the Nanih Waiya game, especially being down 12-1 after two innings,” Austin said. “It would have been easy to let up and fold, but we didn't.”
The Tigers played Forest Tuesday and will be at Choctaw Central Friday.
