Cougar Baseball Earns Needed Wins

Needing wins to climb back in the region race, the Piedmont Academy baseball team got just what it was looking for last week.
The Diamond Cougars defeated Monsignor Donavan 16-2 and Central Fellowship 16-6 last week to move to 3-4 against Region 1-AA competition and 5-7 overall. Piedmont did not play during the first part of this week but returns to action Thursday against Briarwood at home.

Cole Hamilton earned the win last Wednesday against Monsignor Donovan. After falling behind 2-0, the Cougars began to rally in the top of fourth on a Daniel Leinweber solo homerun.

Hamilton would then strike out the side in the bottom half of the inning. Piedmont would push three more across in the top of the fifth as once again Hamilton struck out the side in the bottom half.
Five more runs in the top of the fifth and seven more in the top of the seventh sealed the deal for the Cougars. “That was a big win for us,” coach Danny Camp said. “We had 14 hits. We pitched well, played good, solid defense and hit the baseball well. When you do those three things, you will always give yourself a pretty good opportunity to win.”

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Hamilton allowed just one earned run and recorded nine strikeouts. Zach Beggs worked the sixth inning and Leinweber finished the deal in the seventh.
Offensively, Hamilton was 5-for-6 with five RBI. Leinweber finished 2-for-4 with a homer and Beggs also drove in two runs. Jakey Dunagan had a big day at the plate with four RBI.

Piedmont also had to rally against Central Fellowship two days later after falling behind 4-0. In the top of the second, Dunagan connected on a solo homerun to begin the climb back.

Central Fellowship added two more runs for a 6-2 lead before the Cougars went in front 7-6 in the top of the third. McKenzie Brittain improved to 3-0 with the win working five innings and allowing just three hits. He was helped by his team’s offense as Piedmont scored five runs in the top of the fourth and four more in the top of the sixth.

“We played solid defense, Camp said. “We ran down a couple of deep hits in the gap. We were close to turning a couple of double plays, but we were still able to get the lead runners. Once again we pitched well, played good defense and did well at the plate. We worked the count and didn’t jump at first pitches. We had several two-out hits where our batters also had two strikes in the count.”
Brittain drove in two runs while Hamilton was 2-for-5.

“Maybe we are growing up a little,” Camp said. “We are starting to put some things together. I am proud of how we went on the road and came back to win. Hopefully, this is a sign of better things to come.

Maybe our older guys are getting more comfortable and the younger ones are getting more experience. Things will be OK. You just have to keep working. If you don’t work hard, things will be twice as tough.”

Not playing earlier this week is something Camp did not like but it was how the region schedule was set up.

“When you are doing well you like to keep playing,” the coach said. “If we can get a win Thursday that puts us even in region. Hopefully we can start putting some pressure on some teams. To be 4-4 at spring break would be great.”