East Hamilton Baseball Falls In 13 Innings

 

Gray Williams gave everything he had. 

 

For Williams, that meant throwing eight innings of sterling pitching in relief with 13 strikeouts………..on a partially torn hamstring.

East Hamilton may have gone down 3-1 in 13 innings, but the Hurricanes pitcher’s effort and desire to win could not be questioned, nor could his teammates’. 

 

“It’s a little hard to get over my front side and it does tighten up on me, but after three weeks it’s more functional,” Williams said after the game.

 

“You can’t ask for anything more from your pitchers,” coach Ramsey said. “You just have to be able to execute timely hits, two-out hits are so important. We just couldn’t execute one of those.”

 

Jase Phillips and Jacob Tremblay each went five innings and took turns sitting down batters to start the playoff game. South Doyle’s Tremblay got the first run of support in the top of the third. Jared Beal drove in one teammate on a sharply hit ball into center to draw a rare run against Phillips, who otherwise allowed only four hits. 

 

East Hamilton later tied the game on a confusing sequence in which the ball hit an umpire, and appeared to possibly brush the batter before flying behind the plate. With a runner on third, it was ruled that a runner would have advanced home if there had not been confusion over whether it was a hit batter or not. This fourth-inning play scored Williams, and actually ended up being a walk to the batter as well.

 

East Hamilton then popped out to South Doyle’s right fielder to strand three runners on the bases, which was a theme for the night. The Hurricanes had their chances to drive runners in, but hard-hit balls always seemed to find South Doyle gloves.

 

And as the game went on, those opportunities became rarer and rarer as the sun went down and relief pitcher Noah Irwin took the mound. South Doyle’s hurler worked at an almost hurried pace, frenetically shuffling back to the top of the mound after receiving the ball. His routine worked, because his breaking pitches with a foot of movement flummoxed Hurricane bats the majority of the time. 

 

Williams was masterful as well, but East Hamilton’s elite fielding also deserved recognition. At shortstop Jack McBrayer was a vacuum in between second and third, and he repeatedly sprayed accurate throws to first baseman Ian Lindsey for outs on plays that could’ve been singles from a lesser fielder.

 

East Hamilton will also rue a litany of baserunning gaffes once the game went into extra innings. Once a runner would get on first, the Hurricanes would try to advance them into scoring position. Sometimes, the runner would get thrown out after a failed hit-and-run. Other times, an accurate throw from the catcher was enough to nail a runner with what seemed to be a decent lead. 

 

“We ran into some outs on the basepaths, and we just couldn’t get something rolling,” coach Matt Ramsey said.

 

The sun had set by the time South Doyle took a lead it would not relinquish. After being bottled up by Williams, South Doyle produced a single before a passed ball got him to second. Then a walk combined with another passed ball put runners on the corners. That runner then stole second with no outs to put threats at second and third. 

 

All it took was a Jadyn Foust single to bring home both runners. East Hamilton could not produce and answer, and their season ended in a classic 3-1 defeat where neither team deserved to lose.