May 30—GREENSBORO — Southwest Guilford never fell in danger of suffering its first loss Friday.
Luke Johnson lifted a three-run home run in the first, Hunter Whitten and Camden Saylor combined on a four-hit shutout and the Cowboys thundered past Western Guilford in Piedmont Triad 3A baseball at Brett Stell Stadium.
The game was much different than the Tuesday meeting that the Cowboys won, 11-9, on their home field.
Southwest improves to 10-0 and 6-0 in the PTC with four conference games left, two against Dudley next week and two against second-place Mount Tabor the final week of the season. Western drops to 3-6, 3-2.
After two walks with two outs in the first, Johnson lofted a shot to center that kept carrying as the Western Guilford center fielder drifted back trying to make a play. He crashed into the outfield fence as the ball barely cleared it.
Southwest added three in the fourth on a bases-loaded wall and two-run ground rule double that bounced over the center field fence.
In the fifth, Johnson scored on a groundout with the bases loaded. The Cowboys tallied their final run in the sixth when Adrew Stephens tripled and scored on Jaxson Rauber’s single.
All but the run in the sixth were charged to Hornets starter Thomas Gumble, who gave up just four hits but walked seven.
Johnson was the only Cowboy to score more than once and Stephens was the only one to get more than one hits.
All four Hornet hits were off Whitten, who worked the first six innings, struck out eight and walked none. Western got a runner past second just once, that in the sixth off two infield hits.