Central freshman Andrew Bingham and Will Waters combined on a four-hitter, scored early and late and the Purple Pounders shut out Silverdale, 3-0, Saturday morning in the Ooltewah Invitational.
Bingham worked six-plus innings, yielding all four Seahawks hits, but managed to strand seven baserunners. He went to 3-0 on Collin Daniell leading off the seventh before giving way to Waters, who eventually walked Daniell.
Tyler Mossburg popped out to second and Jordan Delashmitt grounded into a game-ending double play.
“I thought Andrew did a good job keeping his head with a 1-0 lead,” Central coach Glen Carter said.
“A one-run lead is nerve-wracking for a coach, much less a freshman pitcher.”
Silverdale (1-4) had three baserunners in the first inning, two reaching on errors by third baseman Gabe Fomby. Yet, the Seahawks came away empty.
River Crowther walked in the second and later was stranded at third when Tyler Mossburg struck out to end the inning.
The Seahawks had runners at second and third in the third, but botched a suicide squeeze bunt with Delashmitt being tagged out in a rundown between third and home for the second out. Bingham got opposing pitcher Josiah Green to bounce out ending that threat.
Caleb Stafford drew a two-out walk and Daniell beat out an infield hit in the fourth only to have Mossburg ground out second-to-first.
Delashmitt opened the fifth with an infield hit, but Chance Brown hit into a double play and Blake Howard grounded out.
“Little things add up,” Silverdale coach
Still nursing the 1-0 lead, Bingham gave up Green’s single and walked Michael Hawkins. Crowther popped up to first, Stafford struck out and Hawkins was picked off first base.
“I kept my composure,” Bingham said, “and my team backed me up. I felt a little pressure with the 1-0 lead, but we have a pretty good offense and I thought we could score a few more runs. When we scored two runs in the sixth I felt a little more confident.”
Central (4-4) wasn’t doing a lot offensively against Green either.
The Pounders’ Andrew McDanield and Tyler Lowe had back-to-back singles to open the first inning, but Fomby and Waters each struck out. Dakota Fowler drove a single between third and short to score McDaniel.
Central got only one runner to second base over the next three innings.
“We’re still not hitting to our capabilities,” Carter said. “We’re going to use the rest of this tournament and our tournament next week as practice time. We’re way behind in our hitting work because we don’t have an indoor facility.”
In the fifth, the Pounders frittered away another scoring opportunity.
Walker Waters led off with a single to left field and Jake Hood’s sacrifice bunt moved him to second. McDaniel struck out. Lowe reached on a Hawkins throwing error. Fomby walked to load the bases. Will Waters flied out to right to end the inning.
A Hawkins fielding error allowed Fowler to reach first safely against reliever Chase Cook and Fowler quickly stole second base.
Scout Morgan struck out and Bingham drew a walk. Walker Waters’ sacrifice bunt moved the runners to third and second. Fowler scored on a wild pitch.
Hood, the Pounders’ ninth-place batter, stroked a single down the left-field line to push Bingham across with the final run.
“We’ve got to get focused for our tournament next week and then we get back into district play with Red Bank,” Carter said.
Central (4-5) lost to Powell, 9-6, in their second game Saturday.
NOTES: The Pounder Classic runs Thursday-Saturday and will be played at Central and Hixson high school fields. … There already is a record for this year’s tourney with Innisdale High School in Barrie, Ontario, Canada in the 11-team field. Barrie is 876 miles from Central High in Harrison. “That’s the travel record by far,” Carter said. … A team from Fort Smith, Ark., also is coming to town.
LINESCORE
Silverdale 000 000 0 – 0 4 2
Central 100 002 x – 3 7 3
Green, Cook (7) and Howard; Bingham, W.Waters (7) and Lowe.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)