Knights win with help from first-year pitcher

Greenbrier returned to practice Tuesday and went to work with its bats after dropping its season opener at rival Evans.

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"We stayed till 8 (p.m.)," Greenbrier's Blake Ross said. "All we did was hit."

Greenbrier coach Chris Wilkins thought his team could have hit better in key situations during a 3-1 loss to Evans earlier in the week.

The Wolfpack rebounded to hit well the following day against Lakeside.

Greenbrier scored eight runs during the fourth inning and held off the Panthers, 9-5. Wolfpack slugger T.D. Davis started the inning with a triple and capped the scoring with a three-run homer.

After the top of the third Wednesday, about everything went the Wolfpack's way.

Jeff McGowan delivered a two-out, RBI single in the third to get the Wolfpack on the board after they had fallen behind 3-0. Wilkins called McGowan's clutch hit a momentum stopper. But it also built the momentum for the Wolfpack.

"That was a big hit right there," Wilkins said. "And hitting is just contagious. It's like that sometimes. You just get it going."

The Wolfpack tallied six hits during the fourth. Greenbrier's Ben Morgan hit a shot to right field that was lost in the lights and dropped, scoring three runs.

Before that, the Panthers were an out away from escaping the inning with the score tied. A failed squeeze bunt turned into a testy situation when Greenbrier's Kyler Timmerman collided with Panthers catcher Mike Gram at the plate.

Gram held on for the out, but argued that Timmerman should have been tossed.

"He's got to slide at home plate," Gram said. "I like contact and everything, but that was uncalled for."

The Panthers got a strikeout, but could not avoid what happened next.

Davis' home run gave the Wolfpack a 9-3 lead. The senior finished with seven total bases during the inning and scored twice.

The Panthers attempted a comeback in the ninth. They loaded the bases with none out and pushed across two runs. But, with senior Ben Turner on the mound, the Wolfpack forced a double play and ended the game on a strikeout.

Evans 3, Greenbrier 1

Wilkins' debut as Greenbrier's head baseball coach was spoiled by Evans senior Kevin Caughman.

Caughman's two-out double in the bottom of the fifth scored all of the Knights' runs in their 3-1 win over the rival Wolfpack on Wednesday. Caughman and the Knights had been stymied most of the night by Greenbrier starter Chad Farmer.

"He'd been killing us with that off-speed all day," Caughman said. "I was looking off-speed, and he just left one over the plate."

Farmer, a junior, pitched all six innings and had 12 strikeouts. He kept Evans off balance with his breaking ball and changeup.

Greenbrier took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth after Ben Turner led off with a triple and scored on a bases-loaded walk.

Farmer is one of the new faces Wilkins inherited after the Wolfpack's run of two state titles in the past three seasons.

The Knights also sent a first-year starter to the mound. Junior Matt Blume, who appeared in a state playoff game last season as a sophomore, pitched six innings and scattered five hits. He worked out of jams in the first and third innings, and survived further damage in the fifth when he forced Justin Thigpen into a fielder's choice with the bases loaded.

"He did a great job of working ahead when we got in key situations," Wilkins said.

"Three different times we were in offensive go spots, and he did a great job of working ahead those times."