By By Matthew Nascone
The bats came alive for the Northview Chiefs baseball team Thursday as they defeated the Flomaton Hurricanes 16-8 in Flomaton.
"We hit the baseball well," NHS head coach Sid Wheatley said. "I was proud of how they hit the ball Thursday."
The win bumped the Chiefs record to 2-2. Wheatley said the Flomaton game was exactly what the team needed.
"We have been working hard in practice and they showed me they can make adjustments," he said. "Our hard work paid off and we looked relaxed at the plate."
Travis Duncan (1-1) grabbed the win for the Chiefs. Duncan threw three innings and allowed only one run.
"He did a good job throwing strikes and that helped us out," Wheatley said.
Jesse Hayes and Phillip Enfinger saw action on the mound for NHS after Duncan left in the third inning.
NHS scored the 16 runs on 11 hits. The leaders of the hit parade were Jake Lowery who was 2-for-3 with a double, four RBI and four runs scored, Ryan Chason who was 2-for-4 with three RBI, Matt Walker who went 2-for-3 with two RBI, Enfinger who was 1-for-3 with one walk and two RBI, Duncan who went 1-for-4 with two RBI, Brandon Walker who went 1-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored and Sean Little who did not have an official at-bat because he was walked three times and hit by a pitch, but he scored four runs.
"Sean did a good job for us at the top of the lineup," Wheatley said. "He is our lead-off man and he needs to get on base and score runs and he did that in this game."
On Feb. 21 the Chiefs lost to Navarre 2-1 and Wheatley said they had a couple opportunities to win the game.
"I feel like if we only allow two runs we should win the game," he said.
Navarre mustered only four hits off NHS pitchers, but the Matt Reynolds' single was the only hit for the Chiefs and it was the hit that knocked in Little, who had been hit by a pitch.
"We saw good pitching, but we could have come away with a win if we would have limited our mistakes," Wheatley said.
Reynolds (1-1) threw four innings for the Chiefs and allowed only one run.
"He pitched well enough to win and Phillip came in and pitched fine as well," Wheatley said.
The Chiefs played South Walton in their opening district game Friday and Wheatley said that would be a big game for the Chiefs. The results will be in Wednesday's Advance. The Chiefs host the Escambia Academy Cougars Tuesday.