Baseball Recap: Emerald Drops Highest Score of Season Against Southside

Vikings

Team Score (Highest)

04/09/25 vs Southside	16
04/02/25 vs Laurens	10
03/11/25 vs Ninety Six	10
03/12/25 @ Ware Shoals	8
03/22/25 @ Andrews	7

Winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Emerald). They put the hurt on the Southside Tigers with a sharp 16-1 victory on Wednesday. The win continues a trend for the Vikings in their matchups with the Tigers: they've now won seven in a row.

Finn Howard made a splash no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, striking out eight batters over four innings while giving up just one earned run off one hit (and not a single walk). Emerald is 3-1 when Howard allows one or fewer earned runs, but 3-8 otherwise. Howard was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring three runs and stealing a base while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. Those three runs gave him a new career-high.

In other batting news, Emerald let Eli Swancey and Aaron Polly run wild. Swancey scored three runs and stole a base while going 3-for-3, while Polly scored two runs and stole a base while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. That's the most runs Swancey has posted since back in March. Coleson Marino was another key player, scoring two runs and stealing two bases while going 1-for-2.

Emerald hit smart and finished the game with only one strikeout. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Southside struck out eight times.

Emerald's victory bumped their record up to 6-9. As for Southside, they are on a 29-game losing streak (dating back to last season) that has dropped them down to 0-12.

The teams didn't have to wait long for a rematch: Emerald beat the Tigers by a score of 20-0 later that day.