Greenbrier West 13, Midland Trail 0 (6 innings)
Gallery by Tina Laney
Hico – Arguably the hottest team entering the baseball post season was Greenbrier West.
One night removed from a 23-0 win over Meadow Bridge to open Class A Region 3, Section 2 play, the Cavaliers recorded another shutout in a 13-0 win over Midland Trail in six innings Wednesday.
Greenbrier West will now travel to top-seeded Charleston Catholic Thursday with a berth in the championship round on the line.
“Our guys executed all of the calls. Credit goes to those guys,” Greenbrier West head coach Matt McClung said. “All I had to do was call the plays. They executed them.”
The Cavaliers pounded out 10 hits on the night led by Braydon McClung, David Lester and Scott McClung who each had two hits and one RBI apiece.
Scott McClung and Lester each had a double.
While the visitors collected double-digit hits in the win, the home squad was also busy committing nine crucial errors.
“You have to capitalize. We came here with the intention of putting the ball in play, whether that is barreling balls up or playing small ball,” McClung said. “When they made mistakes, we had to capitalize on that.”
Braydon McClung collected the win throwing four-and-a-third innings of one-hit baseball with nine strikeouts.
The win was the ninth in the last 11 games for Greenbrier West. The only two losses coming by narrow margins to Nicholas County and Oak Hill.
“We started with a rough schedule and wasn’t playing good early,” McClung said. “We went to Florida for a week and that is a different level of baseball down there. We came back home and still didn’t put everything together. Then it just clicked”
“I have six seniors and the senior leadership has been phenomenal,” McClung continued. “We started playing some small ball and started getting the bat on the ball. It sparked our offense. Since then we have been playing well. Our pitchers have pitched well and our defense has been playing well behind those guys.”
The Cavaliers also had a little extra motivation Wednesday.
Although they closed the season on a hot-streak, Greenbrier West earned the No. 3 seed in section, behind No. 2 Midland Trail.
McClung admitted the seeding issue had a bearing on his team when it came to Hico.
“Of course it did, if I am being honest. We felt like we were miss-seeded there a little bit,” McClung said. “With that being said, we were 1-9 and everybody looked at that instead of looking at how we finished or how we were playing at the end of the season. I get it. It was on us for starting that way, but it helped us. It was a little motivation coming up here.”
Now West will head to the Capital City Thursday in hopes of stunning the Irish.
“Our section and our region has gone through Charleston Catholic. We know that and they are a phenomenal baseball team 1-9,” McClung said. “They are good and don’t make a lot of mistakes. We are going to have to play very good defense behind our pitcher and put the ball in play one way or another. We feel like Hayden (Ridgeway) is going to pitch well, so we will see what happens. That is why you play the game.”
