The Johnson City baseball team picked up a pair of wins last week.
Johnson City defeated Goldthwaite 17-8 on March 11 before traveling to Blanco the following Friday, March 14, winning 10-0.
Johnson City is now 3-0 in district play and added two more strong wins to its season last week. Against Goldthwaite, however, the team had to overcome a slower start than it is used to in order to earn the win.
“We got to start better, we really started slow,” Head coach Rhett Eickenloff said. “I’m going to take a 17-8 win any day of the week, but at the end of the day, we got to get better in every aspect of the game.”
Goldthwaite jumped on Johnson City senior starting pitcher Tate Ledbetter early on, scoring a run in each of the first two innings, with one scoring on a wild pitch. Johnson City recovered quickly, though, when senior Johnny Slawinski hit a grand slam in the bottom of the second inning to put Johnson City on top 4-2. Goldthwaite scored two more runs in each of the next three innings, but Johnson City answered back with a five-run third and a four-run fourth to pull well ahead of Goldthwaite and take the win 17-8. W “It wasn’t pretty, but a win’s a win,” Slawinski said. “Anytime we come out to win, we’re happy.”
Slawinski singled to add another RBI to those from his grand slam, giving him a team-leading five RBIs in the win over Goldthwaite. Senior Marshall Jackson batted in three runs, all from his fourth-inning home run, and also pitched three innings in relief after winning-pitcher Ledbetter pitched a three-inning start. Slawinski closed out the win with three strikeouts in the seventh inning.
While the 17-8 score was welcomed by Johnson City, only 10 of those 17 runs were batted in. Combined with the slow start and the three errors by the Johnson City defense, the win over Goldthwaite still showed room for improvement for the Eagles.
“We just have slow starts and try to come back in the third and fourth,” Slawinski said. “Jumping on them early and keeping that momentum will help us control the whole game.”
On Friday, March 14, Johnson City traveled to Blanco for a non-district contest against its county rival. Slawinski started the game for Johnson City and proceeded to pitch a complete game shutout, allowing just one hit in the game. Johnson City’s offense scored one run in the first three innings but broke out for five runs in the fourth. Adding on another in the fifth and three in the seventh, Johnson City put up a 10-0 victory over Blanco and evened the series with the Panthers.
“It’s always a fun, competitive game when it comes to Blanco,” Eickenloff said prior to March 14’s game. “They’re well coached, got great players, and our kids are really looking to get after them again.”
Slawinski struck out 17 batters and walked one in his one-hitter against Blanco. Offensively, the team batted in seven of its 10 runs, and the only extra base hit of the game for Johnson City came from sophomore Jagger Slawinski.
Johnson City continues district play with the road half of the Goldthwaite series on March 18 before traveling to Mason on March 21.
