Sports

Patriots pounce

• Westover picks up a much-needed region win, 13-1, against city rival Dougherty.

Derek Barichello

ALBANY — Westover’s swagger is back.

At least they hope.

With starting pitcher Lance Shernisky dominating on the mound and Andrew Anderson back to form hitting home runs, the Patriots cruised to a 13-1 Region 1-AAA victory in five innings against Dougherty at Paul Eames Sports Complex on Friday and brought back memories of what it was like at the beginning of the season when the Patriots played to their potential.

All of a sudden anything is possible.

“We needed this, it was pretty big,” said Anderson, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI as his Patriots improved to 2-2 in region, 11-5 overall.

“Everybody left today with confidence. We want to win out in region and everything is building up to do that – starting next week.”

Meanwhile, Dougherty, who started the season strong, has recently dropped three straight games and finds itself at 1-3 in Region 1-AAA, 7-7 overall.

Team-leader and shortstop Felton Walls, who drove in the Trojans’ lone run, thinks the recent slide has been a matter of approach.

“We haven’t been focused,” Walls said. “We’ve made too many errors lately. We’ve got to take warm-ups in pregame more seriously. If we want to go back to the playoffs, we’ve got to do those things.”

It did not help the Trojans that Shernisky was throwing his curveball for a strike. With his full arsenal in place, Shernisky used that to his advantage, working ahead in the count most of the way and leaving Trojans’ hitters guessing.

“The game feels easy when I’m on,” said Shernisky, who struck out six and allowed just four baserunners, all on hits. “It helped that I had command of my curveball and all my pitches.”

Then the Patriots’ offense did its part, scoring a run in every inning.

Westover tallied a run in the first, three in the second and two in the third and fourth, before Anderson smashed a line drive home run over the left-field fence to cap off a five-run fifth — good news for the Patriots who are waiting for him to break out.

“I’m getting my swing back,” said Anderson, who played with a sprained wrist he suffered in Tuesday’s game against Cairo. “I had an RBI single to right (in the fourth inning), then I turned on it in that next at-bat. I think I learned that I don’t have to swing as hard.”

That’s where the Trojans frustration begins.

Dougherty committed only two errors, but both were costly. An error in the third led directly to a run, while an error in the fifth kept the inning alive for Anderson’s two run smash.

That caused Dougherty coach Dexter Malone to substitute those players in the middle of an inning after the error occurred and to sum up the game with the one word that might wake him up in the middle of the night.

“Errors,” he said.

“Errors — that’s it. (Starting pitcher) Adrian Davis didn’t pitch bad, he was in the strike zone – it was errors. We can’t win if we commit errors.”

The Patriots are scheduled to play two region opponents next week. They play Monroe on Tuesday and Worth County on Wednesday.

Dougherty’s next game is at Worth County on Tuesday.

BRINGING OUT THE BATS

Also adding big hits in the Patriots’ 10-hit attack were Brandon Lee, who had an RBI triple in the third and scored, along with C.J. Hillard and Jacob Riggins, who both doubled.

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