BUNKER HILL 12
W. CALDWELL 2,
6 INNINGS
HobbsDailyReport.com
NEWTON – Bunker Hill High’s baseball team found itself in a familiar spot when its game was over on Friday night – champion once again in the Southern District 7 Athletic 2A tournament.
The third-seeded Bears ripped fourth-seeded West Caldwell 12-2 in six innings at the Legion Fairgrounds to win another title.
In the SD-7 2A’s four seasons, Bunker Hill won the conference tournament three times.
Bears head coach Marty Curtis guided his team to its third SD-7 2A tournament title in four seasons and now has 435 career wins.
On Friday night, the Bears got a strong game from left-hander Thaxton Isenhour. West Caldwell was held to fewer hits (five) than it had errors (six), and Bunker Hill had 13 hits.
The Bears scored twice in the first inning and were up 8-0 after scoring six runs in the third inning. They stretched that lead to 11-0 before the Warriors (10-13) scored their only two runs in the bottom of the fourth in a game that was played with an almost constant drizzle of rain.
Isenhour had two hits, as did Ande Farr, Carrington Chapman, Bryson Smith and Luke Cater as Bunker Hill picked up head coach Marty Curtis’ 435th career win (34th year).
Cater’s single in the sixth inning pushed Bunker Hill’s lead to 10 runs and ended the game.
Bailey O’Brien took the pitching loss for West Caldwell, which advanced to the final with a 10-8 semifinal victory over eighth-seeded Newton-Conover after the Red Devils surprised top-seeded East Lincoln in the opening round at East Lincoln.
Bunker Hill needed a 5-4 semifinal victory over Bandys to get to the final. The seventh-seeded Trojans opened the tournament with a 7-4, 10-inning road victory over No. 2 seed Maiden.
The SD-7 2A has been a league, this time, for four years and Bunker Hill reached the conference baseball tournament final four times.
Sixht-seeded Maiden beat the Bears (No. 4 seed) to win last year’s tournament. Bunker Hill won as a No. 1 seed in 2014 (beating No. 7 Newton-Conover) and as a No. 2 seed in 2015 (beating No. 1 East Lincoln).
As this year’s regular season champion, East Lincoln will go into the state 2A playoff bracket first from the SD-7 2A. Bunker Hill, which tied Maiden for second in the regular season, leaps past the Blue Devils and will be the next SD-7 2A team into the bracket.
SD-7 2A BASEBALL TOURNAMENT
Tuesday’s results
(at higher seeds)
No. 8 Newton-Conover 6, No. 1 E. Lincoln 4
No. 4 W. Caldwell 6, No. 5 W. Lincoln 5
No. 7 Bandys 7, No. 2 Maiden 4, 10 inn.
No. 3 Bunker Hill 5, No. 6 Lincolnton 3
Wednesday’s semifinal results
(at Legion Fairgrounds)
No. 3 Bunker Hill 5, No. 7 Bandys 4
No. 4 W. Caldwell 10, No. 8 Newton-Conover 8
Friday’s title game
(at Legion Fairgrounds)
No. 3 Bunker Hill 12, No. 4 W. Caldwell 2, 6 inn.