Health & Fitness
Lexington Wins Region 5-AAAA Crown; Downs North Augusta 8-1
Wildcats host A.C. Flora at 1:00 on Saturday. It's Senior Day and Military Appreciation Day.
Nick Ciuffo, Ryan Brown, Zach Paquette and Cole McMillan had two hits each and Matt Godleski pitched five strong innings that helped top-ranked Lexington capture the Region 5-AAAA championship with an 8-1 win over North Augusta in high school baseball action Thursday at Wildcats Field.
The Wildcats, who improved to 16-3 overall and 8-0 in region action, play host to A.C. Flora at 1:00 on Saturday. The Yellow Jackets fell to 9-11 and 3-5.
In the bottom of the third innning, a walk to Cody Smith, an error and an intentionally walk to Ciuffo loaded the bases with one out. Paquette's sacrifice fly to left and McMillan's run-scoring single to center gave Lexington a 2-0 lead.
The Yellow Jackets scored an unearned run in the top of the fourth inning. Zach Wilson reached on an error and eventually scored on a single by Ryan Lark that cut Lexington's lead to 2-1.
The Wildcats answered with six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Cameron Matthews walked and moved to third when Jordan Buster's sacrifice bunt attempt was thrown away for an error. Smith followed with an RBI single to center for a 3-1 Lexington lead. Ryan Brown's RBI single and a run-producing grounder by Dalton Addy extended the margin to 5-1.
After Ciuffo doubled to left, Paquette bounced a two-run single to right that gave the Wildcats a 7-1 advantage. David Barboza bounced an RBI single to center making it 8-1 Wildcats.
Godleski (3-0) picked up the win allowing only an unearned run on six hits with with three strikeouts over the first five innings. Jake Nelson suffered the loss surrendering eight runs, five earned, on 10 hits over 3 1/3 innings.
Lexington 8, North Augusta 1
NAUG -- 000 100 0 -- 1 - 6 - 2
LEXN -- 002 600 x -- 8 - 11 - 2
WP - Matt Godleski (3-0). LP - Jake Nelson.
Hitters: Lexington, Nick Ciuffo 2-3; Zach Paquette 2-2, 3 RBI; Cole McMillan 2-3; Ryan Brown 2-4.
Records: Lexington 16-3, 8-0 Region 5-AAAA; North Augusta 9-11, 3-5.
Lexington plays host to A.C. Flora at 1:00 on Saturday.