The Highlanders’ Phillip Swindell hit for the cycle and Rickey Gillard had a strong outing in his first start of the year for a 15-6 victory against Appling Christian Monday.
“Rickey Gilliard had a really good start for us today,” FPCA coach Bruce Green said. “It was his first time to start this year and he gave us four incredible innings, and Dalton Smiley finished the final three innings.”
In addition to Swindell’s cycle feat, Smiley and Lee had home runs.
On Saturday afternoon, the Highlanders edged out Curtis Baptist School from Augusta with a late-inning home run. Earlier in the season the Highlanders routed Curtis, 21-1.
On Saturday, FPCA jumped out to a quick lead, plating seven runs in the first two innings. Trailing 7-1, Curtis grabbed six runs in the top of the third to knot the game.
“We had some adversity against Curtis,” Green said. “We didn’t get some calls and we just couldn’t overcome that mentally and affected our focus in the field. We have to get where we can get past those type of situations, especially even when a questionable call doesn’t go our way.”
After the third inning, it was a new game. FPCA responded by hitting, but Curtis stepped up its defense, and the game stayed tied until the bottom of the sixth.
Swindell hit a solo home run for the Highlanders for an 8-7 win. He also retired Curtis in the top of the seventh for the save.
FPCA had six hits and committed four errors.
Lee was 2-for-3 with three RBIs. Cameron was 2-for-3 with one RBI.
The Highlanders improve to 5-6-1 on the season and 1-3-1 in Fegion 2-AA.
FPCA was on St. Simons Tuesday to play Frederica and hosts Robert Toombs Academy at Joseph Miller Park at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.