SWANNANOA – Jake Gravley ’24 watched the ball jump off his bat and knew it was extra bases. There was no hesitation as he wheeled around second base, headed for third.
A big first-inning hit – Jake’s triple brought in two runs – was exactly the spark Christ School varsity baseball needed Tuesday to get back to doing what it does best in a 9-3 win.
Jake was 3-for-4 with three RBIs out of the fifth spot in the lineup, and the Greenies (12-3, 3-0) were the aggressors from the outset at Asheville Christian Academy after producing four runs with two outs in the first inning.
Brody Raleigh ’23 homered and tripled to finish with two hits, the same amount as Johno Pierce ’23 and Jonathan Reece ’25. Chase Gribble ’23 was walked three times.
ACA threw its ace Tuesday and what looked like it might be a quick top half of the first inning for the Lions (5-10, 0-3) ended up with 35 pitches and the Greenies out in front, 4-0.
“That was their No. 1, he’s a really good pitcher. We wore him down and kind of shell-shocked them a little bit there at the very beginning,” Christ School coach Wesley King said.
“We just had a better approach today. Saturday was a rough day. It was good to get punched in the mouth Saturday (an 11-3 home loss to Knoxville Catholic). We had a really great day of practice yesterday, and it was good to come out and play the way we did against a good conference team. Sometimes, guys get outside of what they normally do, and I felt like we did that a little bit Saturday. But when we put the ball in play like we did today, we can run and do some things and create traffic.”
Christ School, ACA, and Rabun Gap (Ga.) shared the Carolinas Athletic Association championship last season. Along with winning Tuesday on the road, the Greenies were able to save Charlie Collins ’24 for Friday’s second game with ACA in Arden.
Wells Alderman ’26 scattered two runs (one earned) and six hits with two walks and three strikeouts over five innings Tuesday. Jakob Iwanek ’24 closed out the game for the Greenies.
Coming off the win, Christ School returns home Thursday for a 6 p.m. nonconference game against Powell (Tenn.).