SHINNSTON, W.Va. — Lincoln baseball coach Greg Smith has somewhat of a luxury with AJ Bart and Colton Edwards playing prominent positions for the Cougars.
In Monday’s matchup with Class AA No. 8 South Harrison, Smith showcased both at pitcher and shortstop, and the duo limited the Hawks to three hits in an impressive 10-0 victory that the Cougars finished off early with a four-run sixth inning.
“We played unbelievable today,” Smith said.
Much of that started with the right arm of Bart, who encountered some trouble in the first inning but got a fly ball to center to strand two South Harrison (9-3) baserunners.
Bart overcame Colton Patterson’s leadoff single in the second for another scoreless frame, and when he returned to pitch the third, he did so with a 2-0 lead after the Hawks committed a pair of costly errors and LHS capitalized.
The Cougars (4-3) broke through offensively in the third to continue adding to their lead, and it started with Edwards drawing a walk and SHHS committing another defensive miscue.
A fielder’s choice from Anthony Belcastro brought in Lincoln’s first run that inning to make it 3-0, and cleanup hitter Alex Greene followed with a two-run home run on a line drive to right that crept over the fence to up his team’s advantage to five.
“All of a sudden, we saw their pitcher a couple times,” Smith said. “Alex blasts one and it kind of took off from there.”
Edwards connected for a run-scoring double in the sixth to make it a six-run margin, then replaced Bart on the mound after some pristine play at shortstop up until that point. Bart moved to short in his place, having allowed two hits and walked a pair while striking out three over the four scoreless frames.
Edwards pitched a pair of scoreless innings to preserve the shutout.
“Colten made a lot of great plays. He’s been doing a great job at short and he hasn’t pitched a bunch in his high school career,” Smith said. “We brought him in that situation to let him get the innings and reps he needs to get. Once we switched, I felt just as confident in AJ. He has a cannon at short and a good glove as well.”
Lincoln capitalized on four consecutive walks in the sixth to end things early. The last of those was drawn by Belcastro and forced in a run.
Greene followed with a two-run single to left and Bart singled home the 10th run to end the matchup early.
“That’s why the pros play 162. You’re going to have a stinker every once in a while, and we had a stinker tonight,” Hawks’ coach Frank Tate said. “We didn’t help ourselves at the plate. We swung at some bad pitches and credit their pitchers for keeping us off balance. If you don’t score any runs, you’re not going to win any games, and no matter how many errors we made, we didn’t do it at the plate.”
Jacob Watts took the loss for South Harrison, which fell to 9-3.
“In our three losses, we haven’t been real good,” Tate said. “In our nine wins, we’ve been pretty good.”