South Walton Seahawks remain perfect in district

The South Walton Seahawks put another mark in the win column Tuesday night with a 5-2 victory over 1A District 3 opponent the Jay Royals.

With the win, the Seahawks move to 11-3-1 on the season and 7-0 in district play.

“We didn’t hit very well, but we had a pretty good pitching performance from a sophomore, Taylor Collier with a two-hitter,” said South Walton Coach Nick Borthwick.

Collier pitched 6 1/3 innings, facing 25 batters, striking out six, walking two and giving up two hits.

Kia Wilk, also a sophomore, came in and finished up the in the seventh for the Seahawks.

Although the Seahawks were a little lacking at the plate, they did have a few that put the bat on the ball.

Senior Adam Richards was two-for-two with a single and a two-run homer. Aiden Keenan hit two singles, while Chase Miles and Austin Garofalo each connected for one hit.

South Walton got on the board first with a run in the bottom of the second. Richards singled and moved around on a bunt single from Keenan. Richards stole third and then Jay loaded up the bases on walks to force Richards in for the score.

In the top of the third, South Walton’s Collier sat the Royals down in short order on a couple of groundouts and a strike out.

In the bottom of the third with one out, Miles singled to right and then scored when Richards cranked a fast ball over the center field fence for a 3-0 game.

In the top of the fourth, Collier, with the Seahawk infield, again sat the Royals down one-two-three for the third straight inning.

In the top of the fifth, the Royals finally got on the board on a solo home run shot by Dillon Riley.

South Walton got the run back – plus one in the bottom half. Richards walked and moved around on a single from Keenan and later scored on an error. Hunter Crawley took one deep to right to score Keenan for a 5-1 showing.

In the top of the sixth, Jay’s Dallin Edwards reached on an error and scored on a single up the middle by Matthew Saylor. But that was all South Walton would give up with Keenan, Crawley and Richards combining for a double play to end the inning.

In the top of the seventh, Jay loaded the bases, but the Seahawks got out of the inning unharmed. Third baseman Keenan fielded a grounder for the first out, then the next two batters walked and Riley singled to load the bases. The next batter hit a grounder to Keenan, who made the throw to catcher Drake Roberts for the second out. Crawley, at second, fielded the next grounder for the final out at first.

“They made it interesting late, but that’s just baseball,” Borthwick said. “We want to get better with our bats. We’ve got to challenge these guys to hit the ball a little bit better. We left a lot of runs out there tonight and took ourselves out of some at bats.”

The next home game for the Seahawks is a 4 p.m. game Monday against Pensacola Christian Academy.