Saturday night Shady Spring head baseball coach Jordan Meadows had the bus full of gas. The burning question was, who would take the key and drive the Tigers past Bluefield for the Region 3 title?
The answer was pitcher David “Iceman” Young.
In his biggest game as a high school pitcher, Young allowed just five hits and survived a late Bluefield rally to record the decisive win and send Shady Spring back to the state baseball tournament.
“The kid is the most consistent guy. We call him Greg Maddox,” Meadows said. “He pitches to contact and that is all you can ask for in high school baseball. He throws strikes when he has to and gets out of innings. He is a stud and I love watching him pitch because he is so gritty.”
Young’s ride to game winning pitcher in the regional championship game has been an interesting journey to say the least.
The senior hurler dressed varsity as a freshman in 2019, but with a senior heavy team that also earned a state tournament berth, Young did not see much playing time.
He was slated to see much more action his sophomore year before the season was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.
However, it was over the following summer that Young found the confidence he needed to excel at the high school level going into his junior season.
“I started playing baseball when I was in third grade. I wasn’t really very good, but I practiced a lot to get better. I didn’t really buy into baseball until my sophomore year,” Young said. “I realized I could be really good if I put the work into it. I started practicing more and going to the gym more and I started getting better as a whole.”
Across that summer, Young excelled in the offseason league sponsored by Tim Epling played at Linda K. Epling Stadium.
“I had a strong summer league at Epling. It showed me that I could contend against some of these better teams. I knew then if I got a little stronger I could do better against those better teams,” Young said.
The confidence gained over that period paid big dividends his junior season, as well as going forward.
“Last year he was 5-0 on the mound. In sectionals, he was all we had left against Nicholas County and we won 4-2,” Meadows said. “This year, we relied on him a lot more in bigger situations and it ended up helping him come postseason time against Indy and Bluefield.”
Prior to the regional win over Bluefield, Young had stepped to the mound in final inning of the sectional championship game against Independence where he had to overcome a tough outing against the Patriots in early April.
In that regular season clash, Young pitched just one and two-thirds innings where he allowed four runs and four hits. Half of those hits went over the fence for home runs.
Young erased those bad memories when he sealed the sectional championship by coaxing a fly ball and striking two of Indy’s best hitters.
“He wanted redemption against Indy because he gave up some home runs and he was kind of down on himself,” Meadows said. “He wanted the ball against Independence and everyone knew he was all we had against Bluefield, but I had all the confidence in him.”
Young carried that bulldog mentality into the Bluefield matchup where he said he felt no pressure after the first batter. However, that changed when he stepped to the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning with the Tigers leading 6-3.
Although the Beavers scored two runs and had runners in scoring position, Young made the big pitch when his team needed it most.
“I was actually kind of shaking when I went out there and knew I needed those last three outs,” Young said. “I didn’t want to be the reason why we didn’t win the regional championship. The moment I saw the ball hit to Tyler (Mackey), I knew we had won the game.”
When Mackey squeezed the fly ball for the final out, the celebration was on for Young and his teammates.
“A lot of people really didn’t think we would actually get here. At one point in our season I don’t think a lot of us thought we would beat Independence, let alone Bluefield to go to the states,” Young said. “It’s nice we were able to make it through both sectionals and regionals and make it to states.”
Shady Spring will look to erase another tough regular season result when it faces defending Class AA state champion Logan in the state tournament semifinals Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Appalachian Power Park.
The Tigers dropped a 10-0 early afternoon game in Logan to the Wildcats.
“I think we need to keep playing with the same team mentality that has made us successful late in the season,” Young said. “The last time we played (Logan) we had to get up at 7 a.m. and we had a two-and-half hour bus ride. We weren’t getting the same calls that they were that game. I think it will be a different game this time.”
