By Staff
Tim Cottrell
Northview High School's winning streak ended on a chilly night in Flomaton Thursday night.
Following the completion of the ECHS-Jay barnburner, the Northview Chiefs and the Flomaton Hurricanes played another thriller in Flomaton.
The Hurricanes prevailed 5-4 thanks to some shoddy fielding by the Chiefs.
"I don't think it demoralized us," said Chiefs coach Chris Paulsen, referring to Northview's first loss of the season. "We made a lot of mistakes and put ourselves in bad positions. We made three errors and you just can't do that. But it's good sometimes to lose early in the season, its never good to lose late in the season."
J.J. Cutler pitched 5 2/3 innings for the Chiefs, giving up three hits, four runs, one earned run, and walking five. He also struck out five. Matt Reynolds took the loss in relief, pitching two-thirds of an inning, allowing no hits, an unearned run, and a walk.
Sean Little batted 1-4 for the Chiefs with a double, a run scored, and an RBI. Travis Duncan hit 1-4; Philip Enfinger was 0-3 from the plate but scored a run and drove in a run; Matt Reynolds batted 1-3; Jeremy Greenwell was 0-3 with a run scored, Jordan Cook was 1-3; and Brandon Walker was 1-3 with a run scored.
"Sean Little had a pretty good ball game," Paulsen said. "J.J. Cutler had a pretty good game from the mound as well. He struggled early but settled down at the end."
Paulsen wasn't discouraged by the loss.
"It's good to get this out early in the season," Paulsen said. "We've got some things to work on, especially defensively."
Northview 9
W.S. Neal 0
In their second meeting of the young baseball season Friday night, the Northview Chiefs would not let the W.S. Neal Blue Eagles soar.
The Chiefs picked up a 9-0 win, getting a complete game shutout performance from pitcher Jeremy Greenwell. Greenwell gave up only two hits, walked two, and struck out 10.
"We played a lot better," said Chiefs coach Chris Paulsen. "We had the most improvement in our batting, but we also had a great pitching performance from Jeremy Greenwell."
Greenwell also helped himself at the plate, going 1-3 and scoring two runs. J.J. Cutler batted 1-1, and scored three runs. Brandon Walker hit 2-3 with an RBI, Sean Little was 0-4 from the plate, but scored two runs, and Philip Enfinger batted 1-3 with a double and an RBI.
The Blue Eagles helped the Chiefs out on numerous occasions.
"They made a lot of errors," Paulsen said. "We didn't have a lot of RBI because there were a lot of walks and errors and kids hit by a pitch."
Paulsen said the team was feeling good about itself heading into a tough stretch at the end of the week (games at Flomaton and at home versus Escambia County).
"The team's feeling pretty confident right now," Paulsen said. "We've yet to put together a perfect ballgame but we're learning. Hopefully this will carry over."