Vestavia Hills left-hander Sonny Potter, who has signed to play college baseball at Alabama, had "good enough stuff" against Ooltewah to post an 8-4 win in the Ooltewah Invitational on Saturday. Potter was backed by a nine-hit offense that included home runs by Christian Cusimano and Luke Whitaker.
photo by Dennis Norwood
This time next spring, Sonny Potter will be on a Southeastern Conference baseball roster.
On Friday, the 6-foot-2, 225-pound left-handed Potter was on the mound as Vestavia Hills took on Ooltewah’s Owls in the Ooltewah Invitational at A.C. “Bud” Ball Field.
Potter had to work hard for a decision – he’s 6-0 on the season – in the Rebels’ 8-4 victory over the tenacious Owls in a game that pitted two coaches who were teammates and roommates at Samford University in their college playing days.
“This game was tough,” Potter said. “(Ooltewah) hit the ball hard; they were attacking early and they hit me around pretty good. I had to bear down and get what I could get.”
A University of Alabama signee, Potter worked five innings and gave up all four Ooltewah runs, two of which were earned, yielded seven hits and struck out six while walking two.
Potter did not have his usual velocity – routinely he’s in the low 90s on the radar gun, but was consistently around 86 or 87 mph – yet still displayed the talent that had the Crimson Tide clamoring for his signature on a SEC baseball scholarship.
“I felt about normal,” he said. “The thing in my last game I threw a lot of pitches on short rest, but that’s never an excuse. We don’t make excuses. I was just trying to compete as hard as I could.”
Rebels coach Jamie Harris, a second baseman at Samford while Ooltewah coach Brian Hitchcox played shortstop, agreed that Potter wasn’t as effective as usual on the mound.
“Honestly, I didn’t think he had his best stuff,” said Harris, his club now 19-3. “He competed with what he had and that’s all we ask – compete with 100 percent of what you have that day.”
Vestavia Hills, which hammered Knoxville Bearden, 10-0, in six innings just prior to playing the Owls, checked the Bulldogs on three hits.
The Owls were much tougher outs.
Ooltewah (5-6), which shut out Tolono Unity High School out of Illinois, 3-0, in its first game of the day, tied the game at 1-1 in the first inning when Mitch Duncan singled, went to second on Caleb Collins’ hit, stole third and scored on a Potter wild pitch.
The Rebels went up 3-1 in the second, added a run in the third, but the Owls battled back with two in the bottom of the third.
With two out, Duncan reached on an error by shortstop Christian Cusimano and scored on a Collins’ double to the wall in right-center field. London Elrod singled to left, scoring Collins. Jackson Malcolm doubled Elrod to third and Potter hit Jake Morrow, but Potter whiffed Daniel Willie for the second time to end the inning with the bases loaded.
“Potter is really good,” Hitchcox said. “Our guys had a pretty good approach and I’m proud of the offense. We had a lot of productive at-bats, a lot of loud outs. We gave ourselves a chance, but he still punched out six guys. Good pitchers are going to do that some of the time.
“When pitchers give you an opportunity you have to take advantage of that. I think we did that for the most part. I’ve got to be pleased with our offense against a guy like Potter.”
The Rebels, who have captured nine Alabama state championships -- second only to G. W. Long High School -- that included seven in a row from 1994-2000, got to Ooltewah starter Jake Sullivan for two more runs in the fourth inning when Cusimano made up for his error with a towering two-run homer to left field.
That pushed the Vestavia Hills lead to 6-3.
Cusimano’s shot was the Rebels’ second homer of the game. Sophomore third baseman Luke Whitaker smacked a solo blast down the foul line in left in the third inning.
The Owls got their fourth run in the fourth. Tyler Robertson and Austin Spurgeon drew walks and with two out Collins delivered a RBI single to left field.
Ooltewah failed to score again.
Potter gave up a leadoff hit to Malcolm to start the fifth, but retired the next three.
Reliever Davis Gurosky pitched a hitless sixth. Nathan Dennis worked the seventh and gave up singles to Malcolm and pinch-hitter Andy Reed, but ended the game when Tyler Robertson bunted and was thrown out at first. Dennis had two strikeouts in the final inning.
“Our pitching has been fantastic this year,” Harris said. “I thought Ooltewah had a great approach at the plate. Sonny had good enough stuff, but they hit him harder than anybody has all year. I like their lineup.”
Ooltewah didn’t help itself with four errors and errant pitches by Sullivan.
With one out in the first, Parker Hershey reached on a harmless infield out. However, he zipped to third on back-to-back wild pitches. When catcher Caleb Huskin lobbed a toss back to Sullivan, the throw was wide of the mark and Hershey raced home with the game’s first run.
In the seventh with one run already in, Spurgeon, the Owls’ shortstop, fielded a two-out ground ball by senior Walker Minor, but his throw to first was in the dirt and skipped past Collins, allowing senior Sam Lawson to score Vestavia Hills’ eighth run.
That was the only offensive damage the Rebels managed against Ooltewah reliever Zach Wolfe.
After Cusimano’s two-run homer, Hershey reached on Spurgeon’s first error of the game and Wolfe was brought into pitch with one out.
Wolfe retired the first eight he faced before walking Hershey to lead off the Rebels’ seventh inning.
“I thought both guys that threw for us did a great job keeping them off balance, hitting spots and giving us a chance,” Hitchcox said. “When you don’t make plays, even if they don’t cost you immediately, it allows the lineup to turn over and get back to the top of their order and give their guys another look.
“When your margin of error is small and you’re trying to get them out front (against the off-speed pitches), eventually they’ll make an adjustment. They’ve got a good club, they adjusted and it cost us later.”
Wolfe was making his second relief appearance of the young season and came away with positive aspects of his performance that could pay dividends down the road.
“I feel pretty good about going out there and throwing the way I did today,” said Wolfe, who allowed two hits and a run in 3.2 innings of work. “I was just trying to hit my spots, focus on the (strike) zone and let my defense work behind me. I really wanted to see how I matched up with those guys. I hope to keep this up for the rest of the season.”
Sullivan worked 3.1 innings, gave up six hits and eight runs – five were earned – and struck out two while walking none.
Collins and Malcolm each went 3 for 4 in the game. Collins drove in two runs.
Cusimano was 2 for 4 with two RBIs and Lanson went 2 for 4 with two runs scored and one RBI.
Boxscore
Vestavia Hills 121 200 2 – 8 9 1
Ooltewah 102 100 0 – 4 9 4
Potter, Gurosky (6), Dennis (7) and Hospes; Sullivan, Wolfe (4) and Huskin.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)
Ooltewah third baseman Jackson Malcolm can't come up with the throw from catcher Caleb Huskin as Vestavia Hills' Sam Lawson steals the base in the Rebels' two-run third inning of Saturday's Ooltewah Invitational. Vestavia Hills, a nine-time state champion in Alabama, won the game, 8-4.
photo by Dennis Norwood