Trojans claim 6A Area 4 baseball title

Daphne boys clinch championship after beating BCHS in three-game series
Monday, April 06, 2009
By DAVID LEE and LARRY WHITE
Sports Correspondents
Daphne's baseball team has clinched the 6A Area 4 championship.

The Trojans won two out of three games in a series with Baldwin County High over the weekend. Daphne knocked off the Tigers 7-0 in the opener before losing 2-1 in the nightcap in a doubleheader in Bay Minette on Friday night. The Trojans rebounded at home Saturday morning and sealed the area crown with a 10-0 five-inning runaway victory.

Daphne improves to 23-7 overall with the win while the Trojans finish their 6A Area 4 slate at 6-3, while Baldwin County is 18-8 overall and 5-3 in the area race. The Tigers still have a game with Satsuma to play but even if BCHS wins that contest to knot the area race up at 6-3, Daphne would be the winner thanks to head-to-head competition against Baldwin County, having won two out of three games in the series.

Baldwin County squeezed into the second playoff spot in the area by clinching the No. 2 spot in the 6A Area 4, though the Tigers had to wait until Saturday night to find out if they were in. If Satsuma had swept McGill-Toolen on Saturday evening, then a contest with the Gators would have had to determine which team captured the No. 2 postseason slot. A split or a sweep by McGill-Toolen meant the Tigers were in. The Yellow Jackets ended up beating the Gators in both games, winning 10-8 and 10-3 to give BCHS the berth.

Following are briefs on each of the contests between Daphne and Baldwin County:

Daphne 7, BCHS 0

Mason Hutchins was a one-man wrecking crew in game one on Friday night as the righthander allowed just one hit in taking the pitching win and helped his own cause with a three-hit, three-RBI performance at the plate as Daphne won 7-0 over Baldwin County. Hutchins had a two-run homer in the first inning, then doubled in another run in the second stanza. He added a second double in the fourth inning. Hutchins also struck out six batters in his complete game win.

Brandon Peterson added a two-run single for the Trojans, while Tyler Powell and Conner Reese also knocked runs in. Jake Maske added two doubles and a single for Daphne at the plate.

For BCHS, Trace Zarr had the only hit, a third inning single to right field. Zarr also took the loss on the mound for the Tigers.

BCHS 2, Daphne 1

Brett Langham's RBI single capped a two-run bottom of the sixth inning for Baldwin County and enabled the Tigers to gain a split over Daphne on Friday night as BCHS won 2-1 in the nightcap. Langham's single drove in Demetrius Coley who had tied the game moments earlier with an RBI triple to deep center field that plated Jansen Boeschen home.

Daniel Robinson (now 6-2 on the mound), who limited the Trojans to just three hits, then retired the Daphne batters in the seventh inning to finish off the complete game victory.

Things started out close.

Reese and Robertson hooked up in a good pitching duel with the only damage done in the first 5cm HALF innings being a Russ Mosley towering solo home run to lead off the third stanza that gave the Trojans the 1-0 advantage. That was the only scoring until the Tigers' heroics in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Powell and Jordan Blanchette had the other Daphne hits, while Zarr, Robinson, Lee Bush and Boeschen had the four Tiger hits until Coley and Langham came through in the sixth inning.

"Once again, we were beat in the first game (of a series) but found a way to come back and win the next one," said Bezeredi. "Daniel Robertson pitched an outstanding game for us."

Daphne 10, BCHS 0

Daphne pounded out the hits Saturday morning, though, as the Trojans easily clinched the 6A Area 4 title with the dominating 10-0 victory over BCHS in five innings.

"I'm absolutely proud of these kids," said Daphne coach Joe Hutchins. "I'm as proud of them as any team that I've coached. We had to struggle early on to get runs (at the beginning of the season) but our pitching and our defense has always been there. I told them this morning before the game that the contest was in their hands, that they had to come in, swing the bats and they would win. Every inning, they put together some rallies and I'm proud of that."

Jake Maske (3-2) earned the win on the mound for Daphne, tossing all five innings as he allowed two hits and struck out six batters. "He was on," said Hutchins of Maske. "He threw four pitchers for strikes, he had his fastball, curveball, changeup and slider working."

Bezeredi said Maske was tough. "He did an outstanding job of keeping us

off-balance," said Bezeredi. "We had a chance to get a run in the first inning and we didn't do it with runners in scoring position. Their pitcher pretty much dominated things. We have to put this game behind us now."

Boeschen (2-2 on the mound) only lasted a third of an inning throwing and gave up two hits and four runs but walked the first two batters of the contest.

At the plate, the Trojans were led by Jordan Thornhill, who had a huge three-run double; by Blanchette who had a double and an RBI single; by Hutchins who had two singles; by Eric Britain who had a two-run single, a sacrifice fly and another single and by Maske and Reese who each had a single. For the Tigers, Boeschen had a double, while Zarr added a single.