Albany Herald

Photo by Scott Chancey

ALBANY -- Chris Moates made it look easy.

Deerfield-Windsor's lanky right-hander hurled five innings of shutout ball, giving up just three hits and striking out four. He also homered and drove in four runs while the Knights remained unbeaten with a 10-3 win against George Walton on Saturday.

Moates drove in Deerfield's first run on a fielder's choice in the first inning and the Knights never looked back, improving to 3-0.

"Yes sir, it was a pretty good day for me." said Moates, a junior transfer from Lee County. "My change-up was working and that was the key for me (Saturday). I think I threw some pretty good pitches."

Deerfield coach Rod Murray could not have been happier with the victory.

"(Moates) really had his off-speed stuff working," Murray said. "He had great command of all his pitches. George Walton is a very good baseball team. Any time you can get a win over (Bulldogs coach) Todd Shelnutt's team, you have to be happy."

The Knights pushed their lead to 4-0 when Moates launched a solo homer to dead center. Gill Gillespie later scored on a double play and a Michael Laslie single scored Matt Moree.

Deerfield put the game out of reach in the bottom of the fifth, erupting for five runs when Moates hit a two-run double.

His double was followed by an RBI single from Harris Webb. Then, Gillespie added a two-run hit to make it, 9-0. The long inning, however, seemed to bother Moates in the top of the sixth when he walked the bases loaded with no outs before being pulled in favor of Banks Kinslow.

"My arm got a little stiff while I was sitting in the dugout, Moates said. "But it really didn't matter. We had the momentum by then."

The Bulldogs cashed in when Taylor Pruitt doubled in two runs and Kenny Anderson added a two-out RBI single to make it 9-3.

"We knew (George Walton) weren't going to quit, they are too good of a team to do that," Murray said. "But we kept making them put the ball in play and did not allow the big inning. I am very pleased with the way we played (Saturday)."

Deerfield added its final run in the bottom of the frame when Kinslow scored on a passed ball.