Eagles celebrate senior night with a win over King Academy

NEWBERRY — Newberry Academy pulled out another home win against King Academy on Tuesday afternoon. The Eagles celebrated a 11-9 victory against the Knights to remain in second place in their region standings for SCISA A region IV.

The Eagles got off to a bit of a rocky start on senior night, but quickly bounced back. Head coach Ronnie Bannister have kept the formula simple this season, ‘good at bats, get base runners and pitch well.’ He believed those three things would help this team win when the Observer sports’ staff spoke with him in December and he was proven right in just a few short months.

Newberry Academy has now scored 10 or more runs in three games this season. They have played great team ball and really bought into Bannister system.

“When we came out here I really didn’t know what we had but I knew we had some good kids. Talent wise, I didn’t have a clue. We started working and moving things around,” said Bannister. “I had some guys that hadn’t played since little league but we came out here and starting putting it together. They started to believe in themselves…. Our pitching has done extremely well. We got four guys I can throw out there and I really think we got a shot at this.”

As for the win against the Knights, Coach B gave kudos to the bottom of the batting order.

“I tell these guys all the time that if our bottom of the order gets on base, then no one can beat us. Tonight, we got into a little trouble but our eight and nine hitters were able to get a bunt down then a blooper for a single. Now, we are back at the top of the order and that got us back rolling again,” explained Bannister.

In addition, the Eagles also celebrated their six seniors; Jackson Montgomery, Wyatt Wilson, Josh Joyner, Justin Smith, Tyler Dorsey and Hunter Piersol.

The six seniors also did their own impressions of Coach B that is posted on The Observer’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Newberry Academy will have a chance to win the region championship on this Friday, April 19 at home when they face-off against Richard Winn for the second time this season. First pitch will be at 4:00 p.m.