COLLEGE PARK – As they waited for their postgame speech from the head coach, the members of Woodward Academy’s baseball team gathered around Andrew
Adams and discussed which of his home runs were the best.

They had plenty to choose from.

After hitting the game-winning three-run home run that capped a 10-9 come-from-behind win in Game 1, Adams hit three home runs in Game 2 to lead Woodward Academy to a 16-6 win and a sweep of the Red Elephants in the second round of the Class AAA state playoffs.

“My favorite was the one to left-center over the light pole,” said Adams, who finished the day 5-for-9. “I just go up there thinking right side and the home runs come.”

The home runs occurred often for both teams, which combined for 11 home runs in the two games.

No home run was bigger than Adams’ three-run, game-winning home run in Game 1.

“He’s pretty good,” Gainesville coach Jeremy Kemp said. “He hits everything.”

That’s not exactly true, as Adams struck out three times in the series, including twice in Game 1. But he came up big when his team needed him the most.

After Gainesville built an 8-4 lead in the fifth on a lead-off home run by Will Maddox and a two-run homer by Hunter Anglin, Adams capped off a four-run sixth inning with a three-run shot to steal a win from Gainesville (24-7).

“We had our chances, but we didn’t make the plays,” Kemp said. “We had four or five errors and four or five walks, and you can’t do that in a field this size because it turns solo home runs into 3-run home runs, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Maddox’s second home run cut the deficit to one run in the top of the seventh, but Woodward Academy’s Ben Jernigan came in to pitch and struck out two of the next three batters to secure the win and give the War Eagles (26-3) momentum heading to Game 2.

“You’d like to think (the loss) didn’t carry over, but everyone knows it did a little bit,” Kemp said.

Any notion the Red Elephants had of swinging the momentum back in their favor quickly subsided when Glenn Sawyer led off the game with a home run. Two batters later, Adams connected for a two-run homer to give Woodward Academy an early 3-0 lead.

While his first home run started the scoring, his second homer of the game hurt worse.

After Gainesville rallied to tie the game at 5, Adams broke the tie with a solo shot to centerfield that sparked an eight-run inning where 11 War Eagles reached base. All three of Adams’ home runs came off Gainesville sophomore Hunter Anglin, who took the loss in Game 1 after coming on in relief of David Gonzalez.

“It’s like a domino effect,” Adams said. “Once someone starts hitting, we all start hitting.”

Anglin, who finished with four strikeouts, exited Game 2 after back-to-back RBI singles from Zach Blonder and Josh Minor.

Jonathan Pryor welcomed relief pitcher Stephen Mason to the game a bases-clearing double to give Woodward Academy a commanding 11-5 lead. Morgan Bunting ended the scoring barrage with a two-run home run to left.

While the War Eagles were winning with the long ball, Gainesville used solid hitting to keep the game close early on. Stephen Mason started a third-inning rally by lining a double to left field, and back-to-back singles by Skyler Weber and Will Maddox cut the Woodward Academy lead to one run. Michael Gettys tied the game at 5 with a single to the gap that scored Maddox.

“I felt like we were going to be OK after we tied it up,” Kemp said.

He was mistaken, and now the Red Elephants are headed home after the second round.

“We did enough to win the first game, and we should be playing (today), but it didn’t work out,” Kemp said.

The loss ends the high school careers of seniors Will Maddox, Lee Sisson, Jimmy Kemp and Justin Parrish, but the bulk of the Red Elephants, including Gonzalez, who hit two home runs in Game 2, will be back next year.

“We’re going to try and get over this before we think too far ahead,” Kemp said.