Clinton baseball gets confidence boost in sweep of Onsted

ONSTED — If Clinton baseball goes on a run in the MHSAA tournament, Tuesday is the day the Redwolves will look back and say when the season turned a corner.

Clinton came into Tuesday's doubleheader against LCAA unbeaten Onsted at 1-5 in the league and 7-7-1 overall.

A far cry from the 30-3 season a year ago and below the expectations bestowed upon them with the No. 3 ranking in the MHSBCA Division 3 preseason poll.

"We lost seven seniors," coach Joe Gillies said. "But we have a lot of guys who have played a lot of baseball. We were 30-3 and had guys who contributed to that come back."

Clinton looked closer to the 30-3 team a season ago than the 1-5 team in the LCAA this year on Tuesday as it swept the previously unbeaten Wildcats, 6-1 and 10-4.

"We've been playing good baseball," Gillies said. "We've just had one or two innings where we're not playing good baseball. Tonight, we played seven innings of good baseball."

The Redwolves were able to exercise some demons in the process.

It was the Wildcats a season ago who handed Clinton its' third and final loss of the season in a pre-district game, giving one of the top teams in the state an early exit.

Clinton took on junior Xavier Gibbs, one of the top returning pitchers in the county and who beat the Redwolves in the playoffs last season, and pieced together three runs on four hits and handed him the loss.

Andy Fair was 2-for-4 with a triple, RBI and two runs while Cade Brighton hit an RBI double.

"We haven't fared great hitting the ball against Gibbs," Gillies said. "But today we got enough hits to win a ball game."

It was the Redwolves' sophomore Quinn Walden who shined in Game 1, tossing a complete game, giving up an unearned run, on two hits while striking out four.

"Quinn Walden was as sharp as he's been on the mound," Gillies said. "We're capable of it. Today we showed what we're capable of when we play good baseball."

The bats kept swinging for Clinton in Game 2 as it put together 10 runs on 15 hits. Fair was 3-for-5 with two doubles and five RBIs while Jalen Stelzer was 3-for-3 with a double, an RBI and two runs.

Nik Shadley, Gavin Shores, Cole Breitenwischer and Calen Keith all recorded two hits in Game 2 while Louie Della-Badia tossed four shutout innings in relief to get the win.

All of a sudden, the Redwolves have won four-straight games and are 9-7-1 overall and above .500 for the first time this season.

"They brought back eight or nine of their starters from a really good team last year," Gillies said. "We're flying high right now. I hate to say we're out of the race for the LCAA, but with five losses it's going to be awfully tough. Our plan is to continue to get better game by game so we're ready to go in districts."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Clinton baseball gets confidence in sweep of Onsted