Baseball: Trojans hand No. 2 White Co. first loss

GAINESVILLE -- It truly was deja vu for the North Hall baseball team Friday night.

Two days removed after letting a five-run lead in the seventh inning slip away from them in a gut-wrenching loss to No. 1 Buford, the Trojans stared down the exact same barrel against No. 2 White County on Friday.

There would be no comeback this time, however.

North Hall's Josh Hammonds had an uneventful seventh inning and closed out the final five innings in relief allowing just one run on four hits in helping the Trojans hand the Warriors their first loss of the season, 11-6 at Jody Davis Field.

North Hall coach Trent Mongero said they just tried to put the past in the past.

"It was ironic that we had the exact same scenario tonight that we had (Wednesday)," he said. "But we talked about flushing out the negatives from that game and using the positives. I thought we did that.

"A game like (Wednesday) can be hard to come back from. I was very impressed with how our guys responded. It says a lot about their character."

White County got going early with two runs on four hits, including an RBI hit by Peyton Applewhite. The Trojans responded in the bottom of the inning with two runs to the tie game, getting three hits and taking advantage of a key White County error.

The Warriors, however, continued their barrage in the second with five more hits, including RBI hits by Spencer Adams and Will Flowers, to take a 4-2 lead.

North Hall (8-6, 6-3 Region 7-AAA) answered again in the bottom of the second and never trailed the rest of the way. Andrew Smith blasted a three-run home run and Drew Atha capped a seven-run inning with a two-run double to give the Trojans a 9-4 lead.

White County would score single runs in the third and fourth innings to cut the lead to 9-6 but North Hall scored single runs in the fourth and fifth to push the lead to 11-6. The Warriors would get just one baserunner over the final three innings as Hammonds closed the door.

Atha, Lincoln Hewett, and Stephen Murray each had three hits apiece for North Hall. Smith finished with four RBI and Atha had three RBI for the Trojans, who had 16 hits on the night.

White County (11-1, 6-1) was led by Matthew Hambrick, Adams, Stetson Gearin, Joel Pritchett, and Trey Allen, who each had two hits.

The two teams will play again Monday in Cleveland in the back end of their home-and-home series.