If you want to see what a great high school baseball team looks like, maybe you should make plans to go see the Baylor Red Raiders one day soon.
Without a doubt one of the best – if not the best – teams in the Chattanooga area, the Red Raiders can do it all. They have at least five or six guys who are better than average pitchers and they have an entire lineup and more who can hit and hit for power.
In one sentence, they play the game the way it’s supposed to be played and they do it very well.
Baylor has lost two games this spring, both by one run, and now they’ve won 14 and none have been close.
Friday’s game at Baylor’s Wyatt McMahan Field was the latest as the Red Raiders rolled to a 14-3 victory over non-district foe Ooltewah.
The Red Raiders really put on a show at the plate as they collected a dozen hits while scoring those 14 runs. Half of those went for extra bases, including four home runs.
Leadoff hitter Henry Godbout got four hits for the second-straight game and scored three times as the Red Raiders scored once in the first, six times in the second and seven more in the third as they sent a dozen hitters to the plate in those last two innings.
Godbout, led off with a double down the line in left and scored on a sacrifice fly by Danny Corona after advancing to third on a wild pitch. That gave the hosts a 1-0 lead after one inning, but the Red Raiders were just getting warmed up.
Nick Kurtz led off the second with a solo homer while Godbout added an RBI-triple. Jonathan Larrea had a run-scoring single while Cooper Kinney and Carson Yates both drove in runs with sacrifice flies. The sixth run scored on a dropped pop in the Ooltewah infield.
Larrea led off the Baylor third with a single ahead of a two-run homer by Yates. Kinney and Vito Valincius later stroked home runs with Kinney’s being a three-run blast to right center and Valincius’ a towering solo shot over the flag pole in dead center, certainly more than 400 feet from home plate.
The Red Raiders didn’t score in the fourth, but the damage had been done.
The Owls refused to quit and scored their three runs in the fourth.
Bryson Smith led off with a walk and scored on a double by Dominic Mackaluso. Another double by Harrison Mills sent Mackaluso home while a bad throw by the Baylor infield allowed the third run to score.
Jay Dill was the first of four Baylor pitchers as he surrendered two hits and no runs in two innings while walking one and striking out four.
Patrick Johnson struck out three in his only inning while Valincius and Kinney combined to finish the game out. Valincius had the toughest time as he allowed the three Ooltewah runs on three hits while only getting one out in the fourth. Kinney had three strikeouts and allowed no hits or runs in the final 1.2 innings.
Godbout had four hits to lead the Baylor offense while Kurtz and Larrea both had two each.
Mackaluso had two hits to lead the Owls.
Greg Elie, one of Baylor’s co-head coaches, was all smiles when the game ended.
“This was a good night for us from top to bottom,” he began.
“I really liked our approach at the plate and it may have been our best game of the year with the bats. We had planned to use a bunch of guys tonight, but they always have to be ready. Most contributed in a positive way, but we have a team full of guys who can play,” Elie added.
Mike Kinney, the other half of the head-coaching duo, also had positive things to say about the Red Raiders.
“They executed our game plan and that’s what’s so satisfying for me. You have to do it on both sides of the ball to be a championship team, but our pitching tonight was equally as good as our hitting,” he added.
Godbout is a 17-year-old junior who is a better-than-average leadoff man who also plays a solid second base. After getting a triple, double and single in his first three times up, he admitted that he was thinking about a home run for the cycle.
“I was trying,” he began with a laugh.
“I had four hits in our last game, but I was just wanting to make solid contact with the ball. We’re just starting to put it all together, but we’re heading in the right direction,” he added.
Ooltewah coach Brian Hitchcox certainly would have liked more positive results, but what he saw wasn’t all bad.
“We competed against a really good team tonight,” he said after a post-game conversation with the Baylor coaches just inside the third-base line.
“Baylor is such a good-hitting team that it’s tough to pitch against them. They may be the best team in the state and they make you pay for the mistakes you make, but the game got away from us pretty quick tonight.
“This was a good learning experience for my guys and playing tough teams like Baylor can only help us get better. But they can really swing it,” Hitchcox concluded.
The game was originally set to begin at 6:30, but the JV game went long as Baylor rallied from a 6-0 deficit to win 7-6.
The mood of the entire crowd was lightened at the end as the sprinkler system in the infield went off with one out in the fifth. There was about a five minute break in the action before Kinney could get it turned off, but the outcome of the game had been decided long before that took place.
Ooltewah will be at home on Monday for a key District 5-AAA battle with Bradley while Baylor’s next game is a double-header at Knoxville Catholic on Tuesday.
The always-interesting Baylor-McCallie series will take place on April 26-28 with Baylor hosting games on Monday and Wednesday and McCallie hosting on Tuesday.
OOLTEWAH 000 30 – 3 5 1
BAYLOR 167 0x – 14 12 1
Smith, Cates (2), Smith (3) and Zettel; Dill, Johnson (3), Valincius (4), Kinney (4) and Larrea, Showmaker (4).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)