By REID TUCKER
The District 1-5A meeting between the visiting Rutherford Rams and the Walton Braves was a grinding, three-hour marathon, and in the end, it was the Panama City club that came away with a conclusive win.
The game stretched on for three hours on the night of March 11 but the outcome was mostly decided in three specific instances of the matchup.
First, the Rams (7-3) proved as early as the introductory frame that their bats were better than those of Walton (5-10) by running up a 3-nothing lead after a 2-RBI double to deep center field from Garrett Guthrie (2-for-4 on the night) scored Jacquez Koonce (3-for-5, with a home run and two singles). Rutherford’s defense was better too, stopping a steal from Jace Hughes, who singled to shallow center to reach first base, and then easily throwing out another two Walton batters looking to make it a close contest.
The second occasion wherein Rutherford sealed the deal on the victory was spread out over the top of the second and third innings. Koonce was facing two outs and a 1-2 count when he smashed his homer over the left fence to make it 4-0 for the visitors, then the Rams added another three runs after five of their batters earned hits out of Walton’s starting pitcher, William Kent. He gave up nine hits in not quite four innings, and walked two batters while striking out just one Rutherford batter.
A quick aside: Rutherford’s starting pitcher, Tyler Reese, started off looking pretty good through his five complete innings pitched, as he allowed only a smattering of mostly inconsequential hits. The Rams’ infield did the work of keeping Walton from rounding the bases, but things almost fell apart for Rutherford – and Reese – in the bottom of the fifth. Walton got five hits, a walk and four runs that inning alone, with Thomas Brack, Hughes, Noah Wright and Kent all crossing home plate for scores.
Reese was retired from the mound, replaced by Chris Casey, by the time the bottom of the sixth inning rolled around, but before that could transpire the Rams had a ton of scoring to do in the top half of the frame. Rutherford batted around, accruing six additional runs from a crazy combination of a few Walton wild pitches, fielding errors, three walks, and three hits, one of which was another home run, this time from Ryan Leno. When the Ram defense shut down Walton’s batters after putting Tyler Carnley on-base with a walk, the third and final lever had been flipped, ensuring the Braves’ fall.
Rutherford went three-up-three-down in the top of the seventh inning, and Walton’s Jace Fielder did hit a solid triple clear out to the left-center fence, then scored a fifth run for the Braves after an errant pitch from Casey to Ethan McCormick went in the dirt, but the damage was done. Bengston, who led the Braves’ batters with a 3-for-4 showing at the plate, was thrown out at first after making a break down the baseline when Casey’s third strike went to the backstop.