WELLS — Sawyer Pinkham led fifth-seeded Lincoln Academy on the mound and at the plate as the Eagles upset third-seeded Wells 9-2 in a Western Class B baseball quarterfinal Thursday.
Pinkham tossed a complete game for Lincoln Academy (8-9), allowing just four hits and two runs. The right-hander walked four and struck out two.
“(Pinkham) is great. … I think (the comeback) all (started) with him,” said Lincoln Academy Coach Ryan Ball.
“He got stronger as the game went on,” said Wells Coach Todd Day. “His fastball got a little better and he had more command later in the game.”
Pinkham overcame early control problems after falling behind 2-0 in the first inning.
“I just tried to get ahead of them. I struggled in the first inning but settled in after that,” said Pinkham.
“He was throwing high early, but he finally got down in the strike zone and started getting ahead of batters as opposed to pitching from behind as he did early,” said Ball.
Pinkham also collected three hits and knocked in a run. John Henry contributed two doubles, a single and three RBI.
The Eagles trailed 2-1 after four innings but scored three runs in the fifth, two in the sixth and three in the seventh.
“They just saw (Wells starter Charlie Bell) that third time around and just connected and put some things together,” said Day.
Pinkham doubled to right in the fifth and scored the tying run on Henry’s double to deep left. Henry raced home with the go-ahead run on a wild pitch two batters later.
Bell took the loss for Wells (10-7). The lefty lasted five innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits. He walked four and struck out three.
“(Bell was) only the third or fourth lefty we’ve seen all year,” said Pinkham. “We figured ‘why wait?’ So we picked the flat stuff rather than mess around with the curveball and change-ups.”
Day thought his team wasted some chances to build a bigger lead in the early innings.
“I think the momentum changed earlier in the game when we made some base-running mistakes that cost us some bigger innings,” said Day. “We got on our heels a little bit defensively and we saw them capitalize. Give them credit for hitting the ball.”
“I think we just settled down,” said Ball. “We were nervous coming in. We had a rough last two or three games and it was kind of carrying over. Our confidence was shaky at best.
“(Bell) just started putting it in the zone we wanted. We got a couple of hits and just caught fire.”
Andy Hutchins, No. 9 hitter in Lincoln’s lineup, had three hits, scored twice and knocked in one.
“We have a lot of experience,” said Ball. “We lost to some teams we shouldn’t have and we had some huge wins. Our record is a little deceiving.”
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