Huntington tops ACCS in chilly game

Published 2:55 pm Sunday, April 8, 2007

A two-out, bases loaded walk gave Huntington a win over ACCS Saturday afternoon in chilly Ferriday.

With runners on first and second and nobody out in the bottom of the seventh inning, ACCS head coach Ron Rushing brought in Britton McCall, who promptly retired the next two batters.

Rushing then elected to have McCall walk Landon Willard to pitch to Josh Lee, who had struck out in his previous three trips to the plate on the day.

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It didn’t work out.

Lee drew the walk, which scored the winning run for the Hounds in a 3-2 victory over the Rebels (11-11).

“I probably shouldn’t have (called for the walk),” Rushing said. “I’ll take the blame for that. Britton hadn’t pitched much in varsity games, and we brought him into a tough situation. He did a good job when he came in.”

The winning run was charged to Josh Calcote, who came on in relief of starter Dustin Carroll but was unable to record an out in the inning.

Jordan Wilson started the game for the Hounds (11-8) and pitched four innings of no-hit ball. Trey Corbett came on in relief and allowed two runs on two hits in three innings of work in taking the win on the mound.

Huntington head coach Mitch Ashmore said he wanted to give both pitchers some work during the game.

“Trey hadn’t pitched since last Saturday, and Jordan hadn’t pitched since Tuesday,” he said. “We felt like Trey needed some bullpen work, and since we aren’t playing again until Tuesday we thought we could pitch them both for 60 pitches or so. They pitched pretty well. We just walked too many.”

The highlight of the game offensively came in the bottom of the third inning, when Phillip Washington notched the first home run of his life — a two-run blast over the left field wall — to give the Hounds a 2-0 lead.

Outside of that, Ashmore felt the Hounds didn’t take advantage of enough opportunities at the plate.

“We didn’t get any clutch hits,” Ashmore said. “Ron would probably tell you the same thing. They had some times they had guys on base they probably felt like they could’ve scored.”

Washington batted 2-for-3 with the home run and two RBI. He also scored two runs. Corbett and Brant Bradley each batted 2-for-3.

Carroll and seventh-grader Christopher Perry recorded ACCS’s only hits.

“We lost this game early,” Rushing said. “We left too many guys on base. We didn’t get hits at the right time. Dustin Carroll pitched a good game, and pitched well enough to win. We just didn’t get timely hits.”