Gallery by Tina Laney
The Oak Hill baseball team traveled to Beckley Tuesday night with a chip on its shoulder.
Saddled with the No. 3 seed in the Class AAA Region 3, Section 2 Tournament, the Red Devils felt disrespected.
Oak Hill unloaded that frustration on its Raleigh County rivals.
Scoring twice in three separate innings, the Red Devils opened sectional play with a 7-1 win over Woodrow Wilson.
Oak Hill will travel to Fairlea Wednesday night to play No. 1 seed Greenbrier East, while Beckley will host Princeton back at Thomas F. Parham Field in an elimination game.
The Spartans took down the Tigers by the same 7-1 score.
“They have a big chip on their shoulder,” Oak Hill head coach Chris Hendrick said. “This is our third win against (Woodrow). We were 2-0 in the regular season with them. We split with (Greenbrier) East and did the job against Princeton. We had the best record in the section. Getting the three-seed is pretty disrespectful.”
Standing on the mound for Oak Hill was Jayden McClain who had held Beckley scoreless in each meeting over the last two seasons.
That all changed in the bottom of the first inning.
Maddex Sims reached on a ground ball error before Chase Tolliver singled to right. Sims moved to third on the base hit and scored on a sacrifice fly from Gage Price giving Beckley a 1-0.
“Woodrow Wilson has always been a rivalry to us and it means something winning this game and all of the other games we have played against them this year,” McClain said. “I pitched 28 consecutive innings against them without giving up a single run. They had their first one tonight, but I didn’t let my head hang on that one, I knew we were going to come back and do our job at the plate.”
McClain’s teammates picked him up immediately.
Owen Grose doubled to the gap just out of reach of the left fielder and scored on a one-out single from Connor Smith to even the game at 1-1.
McClain then fired a haymaker at the plate with one-out in the third inning.
Riding a high fastball, the Oak Hill senior blasted a two-run homer into the trees beyond the left field fence for a 3-1 lead.
“My first at-bat I struck out. I was looking for contact that second at-bat. I just wanted to get on base and hit the ball,” McClain said. “Next thing I know, I hit one out and the world is spinning. He let a fastball hang up there.”
Woodrow Wilson head coach Michael McKinney saw the blast as a decisive moment in the game.
“We just couldn’t follow through,” McKinney said. “When he hit that home run, it kind of took the air out of them being a young team. We just have to put our hits together and not leave runners on base.”
Stranding runners in scoring position doomed any type of comeback by the Flying Eagles.
The first incident came in the fourth when Blake Nixon singled to lead off and went to second on a wild pitch.
Nixon moved 90 feet away from scoring on a fielder’s choice, but the the Oak Hill defense answered the bell.
Shortstop Aiden Smith gathered a sharp liner that bounced off of Grose’s glove at third. Holding Nixon on the bag, Smith nailed the runner at first for the second out.
Caleb Compton closed out the threat with a diving catch along the right field line for the final out.
While Beckley was struggling to find a much-needed timely hit, the Fayette County boys were cashing in with regularity.
“Timely hitting was what happened tonight,” Hendrick said. “We don’t like to walk and we are eager when we are at the plate. Sometimes that bites you in the rear.”
First the Red Devils made the Flying Eagles pay for a an error in the fifth when Hunter Elswick rapped a two-out single scoring two runs for a 5-1 lead.
Woodrow increased its misery with another missed opportunity to score in the fifth.
A leadoff single, followed by a walk went wanting on an infield fly and two strikeouts from the heart of the Flying Eagles lineup.
“Timely hitting has been a problem for us all year. We will string together hits here and there,” McKinney said. “Either the top is hitting or the bottom is hitting. Just not on the same page.”
Oak Hill worked more two-out magic in the sixth.
Back-to-back singles from Smith and Micah McCarraher were converted into a pair of run thanks to a single from Trent Rider.
“I told them all that for most of them this is the last week they have in their (baseball) life to display their talent and their attitude,” Hendrick said. “One thing that is big is effort. I told them when we started, we are clean and I wanted to see grass stains and dirt. Leave it out on the field and we will take whatever happens.”
Now the Red Devils are hoping to carry the momentum to Spartan Yards Wednesday.
“We played well against Woodrow and hopefully we can take that into tomorrow,” Hendrick said. “The regular season is over. Everybody started 0-0 today and we expect to be victorious come Friday hopefully. That is our expectation and our goal.”
