Heath strikes out 13 in Gators' victory over Seahawks

BAKER – Senior Anthony Heath struck out 13 South Walton batters as Baker beat the Seahawks 7-1 Monday and the Gators won their fifth consecutive game.

Heath was around the plate the entire game, allowing just five hits and only walking two in weaving his complete-game gem.

"It feels pretty good," Heath said of his 13-strikeout performance. "My teammates are out there picking me up fielding the ball and hitting the ball too and that helps."

It didn’t take long for the Gator lefty to notch his first strikeout of the game.

After giving up a leadoff single to Tyler Townsend, Heath retired Dylan Smith on a called third strike. He also caught Justin Moore looking for the second out of the inning.

Heath retired the side on strikeouts in the second inning. He struck out at least one batter every inning, and the third and fifth innings were the only frames in which he didn’t have multiple strikeouts.

"We go over to Paxton the other night and Anthony throws seven strong innings, and we come in here tonight and Anthony throws another seven strong innings," Baker coach Gary Taylor said. "The guys are supporting him. They are playing behind him."

While the Seahawks struggled, the Gator batters were taking aim on Smith, the South Walton (7-3) starting pitcher.

Joshua Lawson led off the first with a double, but was thrown out at third trying to turn it into a triple. Two batters later, Colton Henry did triple but was stranded at third.

Despite not scoring in the first, the Gators gave a brief display of what was to follow.

Baker (7-4) struck for five runs on four hits in the second inning.

Christian Mainor got things started with a one-out single. Dakota Josey followed with a single and Jacob Ates walked to load the bases with Austin Youngblood coming to the plate.

Youngblood drilled Smith’s first pitch through the hole between first and second base to score Mainor and Josey and give Heath all the runs he would need.

But Baker wasn’t finished.

Ates scored as Lawson was safe on an error. And Youngblood and Lawson scored on Henry’s second triple in as many trips to the plate.

The Gators scored two more in the third inning off Smith, who gave up eight hits, before Seahawk coach Kevin Cipriani went to Alex Astin to stop the bleeding. Astin got out of the inning, striking out Dylan Kersey and getting Henry to pop out to short.

Astin was lights out the rest of the way as he was almost able to match Heath strikeout-for-strikeout.

In 3 2/3 innings of work, Astin struck out seven Gator batters and allowed just two hits.

The score remained 7-0 until the fifth when Mitchell Peterson drew a one-out walk and scored on a Townsend double.

Cipriani was clearly upset by his team’s performance.

"In order to win the game, you have to be able to hit the ball, catch the ball and throw the ball, and we did none of them," he said. "We just didn’t show up today.

"We’ve got two big district games this week and this was a game we needed to come out and win before those two district games and we just came out flat."