By CHRIS HOBBS
Hobbs Daily Report.com
NEWTON – Déjà vu didn’t interest Hickory High’s baseball team one bit on Wednesday night.
HICKORY 2
Playing archrival St. Stephens for the Catawba Valley Easter Baseball Classic title, the Red Tornadoes made the sixth inning their decisive one in a 2-1 victory over the Indians.
A year before, in the same matchup, Hickory got is only hit in the sixth inning and St. Stephens won 1-0 to capture the Classic championship.
“Their bats got hot… and they did a great job of making us pay for it,” said St. Stephens head coach Adam Windham of the fifth-seeded Red Tornadoes (13-8), who were actually outhit by the seventh-seeded Indians 5-4 in a game that took only 69 minutes to complete.
ST. STEPHENS 1
For most of the night, the title game resembled last year’s, when Hickory got its only hit and the sixth was the only inning it wasn’t retired 1-2-3.
On Wednesday night, the Indians (8-12) scratched out a run in the third inning for starting right-hander Weston Kerley and then, for the most part, played solid defense behind him.
After JD Everett singled in the third, advanced on a wild pitch and reached third on a pitcher-to-first ground out, Noah Brown singled through the right side to put St. Stephens up 1-0.
In the fifth, Brody Scarborough reached when St. Stephens center fielder Riley Edwards misplayed a ball with two outs. But with a runner on second, Kerley got out of the jam via an infield pop-up that first baseman Wyatt Berlin went to a knee to catch.
Then came the sixth inning, the inning in which pinch-hitter Brevin Hammer singled for Hickory’s first hit last season. There would be no repeat, as the Red Tornadoes got three hits in the inning to win after Pierson Hanvey scalped the Indians 1-2-3 in the seventh.
Leadoff hitter Jim Gniadek singled to right and Bryce Stober followed with a pitcher-to-first sacrifice bunt for Hickory. Bailey Pait’s bloop single into center put runners at first and third and brought up Hanvey, batting clean-up.
With the count 1-1, Hanvey stroked a fly ball to center that was deep enough to score Gniadek on a sacrifice fly and tie it at 1.
Macory Mitchell was up next, finding his pitch and hitting a ball all the way to the fence in right-center. That scored Pait and got Hanvey pumped as he headed to the mound for the bottom of the seventh.
“I was so happy,” Hanvey, named tournament MVP, said of watching Mitchell’s ball roll to the fence. “I knew it when he hit it, that it would be a triple. I had a lot of confidence in the seventh that I had the stuff to get them out.”
Kerley batted first in the bottom of the seventh for the Indians, hitting a groundball back to Hanvey for an out. Justin Bullock did the same thing – the sixth time a ball was hit right back at (or near) Hanvey.
Facing Everett, Hanvey ended up striking him out and the Red Tornadoes celebrated.
Hanvey had only two strikeouts, no one in the game had more than one hit, there was just one error and Hanvey coaxed 13 groundball outs out of the Indians.
“Hanvey came out in the seventh inning juiced up,” said Windham. “He probably threw harder (than earlier). He was pitching with confidence.”
Notes: Hickory won the 27-year old tournament for the sixth time and added to its tournament-best top three finishes (18)… The Red Tornadoes have been second six times and third six times… Hickory has beaten St. Stephens three times this season (8-1, 5-1 in regular-season Northwestern 3A-4A games)…The Indians have 12 top three tournament finishes… A top seed has not reached the title game in the last six Classics, with Bunker Hill (2011) the last to get there and the last top seed to also win it….Going in reverse order, the seeds that won the last six Classics are 5, 5, 4, 2, 2, 2… Since 2000, the lowest seed to win it all is St. Stephens as a No. 7, beating No. 5 Foard 13-2 in five innings in 2009…In that same timeframe, a No. 8 has not played for the championship.
ALL-TOURNAMENT
Rhyne Johnson, Alexander Central
Devin Roberts, Bunker Hill
Brad Schmertzier, Hibriten
Tyler Ward, Fred T. Foard
Eli Wright, Newton-Conover
Dylan Burkey, W. Lincoln
Bryce Stober, Hickory
Bailey Pait, Hickory
Noah Brown, St. Stephens
Matt Cook, St. Stephens
Tournament MVP — Pierson Hanvey, Hickory