Oak Hill – The last four baseball state championship games have included the team from Hurricane High School.
The Redskins appear poised to make it five in a row.
Playing its seventh game in the last seven days, Hurricane seemed no worse for wear in a 14-1 win over Oak Hill in six innings at Jerry Epperly Field.
“I thought at first both kids were throwing well. Then we broke through there in the third inning,” Hurricane head coach Brian Sutphin said. “There is still a lot of room for improvement, but there were certainly some good things out there today.”
The visitors took an early 1-0 lead on an RBI-single from Bryson Rigney in the opening frame before putting up a big number in the third.
After Ethan Spolarich was hit by a pitch to open the third inning, Brogan Brown attempted to sacrifice him over to second base.
Brown’s bunt attempt went airborne but landed just out of the reach of a diving Connor Roberts at third base, going down for an infield single.
Damian Witty followed with a deep fly to left field that was misplayed in the wind, falling for another single.
Running hard from first, Brown did not see Spolarich holding up at third base on the play.
What appeared to be a sure out for the Red Devils went awry when the ball missed the cut-off man. Spolarich scored, while Brown moved to third and Witty rolled into second.
“We started having more consistent at-bats and grinded it out better with two strikes,” Sutphin said. “When your pitcher goes out and throws strikes and your team makes the routine play, it give your offense a chance to get going. Early on we weren’t putting the ball in play.”
A slow grounder from Quarrier Phillips scored Brown before another Oak Hill miscue on Rigney’s fly ball just off the infield scored Witty for a 4-0 advantage.
“It was kind of the same way the Independence game went. The third inning, we made two miscues and they put six on us in that inning,” Oak Hill head coach Matt Boyd said. “If we make those two plays, we are still hanging around and it gives us a chance to win.”
A pair of walks loaded the bases for Owen Gess who lifted a sacrifice fly to not only score Rigney, but it allowed the other runners to move up a base.
Caden Johnson then drilled a solid single to right, capping the six-run outburst for a 7-0 lead.
“You cannot give teams like Hurricane extra outs. They will make you pay and they did,” Boyd said. “The kid they threw kept us off balance. We didn’t strike out a lot, but we didn’t hit many balls hard. The ones we did hit hard, they made plays on.”
Oak Hill’s best chance to make some noise came in the fifth inning.
Jacob Ward reached on a seeing-eye single that evaded three Redskin fielders before Roberts followed with a bloop single putting runners at first and second.
Zane Wolfe loaded the bases with a one-out single and Oak Hill appeared to be poised from a big inning.
That never materialized.
A diving attempt by Luka Moore on Trent Rider’s line drive to left-center field came up short, but it was good enough to freeze the runners.
Ward would come in to score, but quick work by Moore erased the Oak Hill runner at third base for the second out.
Hurricane starter Reece Sutphin, also the coach’s son, ended the Red Devils’ threat for good with a strikeout.
“We could have made some plays there and Reece fell behind a couple hitters, but, I was proud of them for limiting the damage and coming back at them,” Sutphin said. “I thought Reece was actually stronger towards the end of the game.”
The Redskins put the game out of reach by scoring six runs in the sixth inning which included a two-run home run by Brown.
Although the score might not indicate such, sophomore Jayden McClain had a strong outing against a Hurricane team that has nine seniors.
“I thought Jayden pitched well and gave us an opportunity to be in the game. That is all you can ask out him. Sometimes I forget he is still a sophomore,” Boyd said. “He has thrown well for us all year. If he keeps throwing the way he threw tonight, a lot of good things are going to happen for him. I was proud of the way he fought and battled tonight against a really good team.”
H: 106 016 – 14
OH: 000 010 – 1
WP: Sutphin; LP: McClain
Hitting – H: Spolarich 1-3 (rbi), Brown 2-4 (HR 2 rbi), Witty 2-3, Phillips (rbi), Rigney 2-3 (2 rbi), Moore 1-3 (rbi), Cam Carney 1-3 (rbi), Gress (2 sac, 2 rbi), Johnson 1-3 (2 rbi).
Oak Hill: Zane Wolfe 1-3, Rider (rbi), McClain 2-2, Ward 1-1, Roberts 1-2.
