CLEVELAND — West Hall’s 13-7 Region 7-AAAA victory over White County Friday may eventually represent more than just a single region win.
Last season, West Hall, White County, and Chestatee all went 3-3 against each other in 7-AAAA play creating a complicated tiebreaker to determine the final two playoff spots.
Friday's victory for the Spartans (11-4, 3-0 Region 7-AAAA) completed a three-game sweep of the Warriors (4-7, 0-3) and for now puts them in first place in the early region standings. However, West Hall still has last year’s Class 4A state finalists Marist and Blessed Trinity looming down the road.
“This was a huge win because last year if there had been one more win for any of us [West Hall, White County, Chestatee] there would not have been a tiebreaker,” West Hall coach Chad Sage said. “We’re just trying to win series and pile up as many (region) wins as we can.”
The win also continued to show the resiliency of a young Spartans club. It was the second straight game they had to rally from a big early deficit. In Game 2 on Tuesday White County jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead before the Spartans rallied for a 14-4 win.
It was almost a carbon-copy of that game as the Warriors could not have asked for a better start on Friday.
Starter Jordan Palmer retired the Spartans in order in the top of the first and Weston Bray lined a three-run home run to left in the bottom of the inning for a quick 3-0 lead off West Hall starter Braden Simms, who was making his first-ever varsity start. J. Ben Haynes had walked and Colby West reached on an error in front of Bray’s blast.
Palmer then got help from in his defense in the second turning a double play to erase a lead-off single by Jeffrey Jenkins. In the bottom of the second White County’s Wyatt Sieviking singled and Jared Johnson walked knocking out Simms after just 1 1/3 innings. Haynes doubled in Sieviking off freshman reliever Kyle Murphy and West drove in another run on a groundout for a 5-0 lead.
“Braden has pitched well for us out of the bullpen so I think it was just a matter of things kind of snowballed on him,” Sage said. “It’s just one game. We think he’s going to be pretty good by the end of the season.”
But as good as the first two innings were for White County, the next four were even better for West Hall.
The Spartans began to climb back in the game in the third. Canaan Koger led off the inning with a wind-aided solo home run to center to trim it to 5-1. White County threatened to add on in the bottom of the third getting a pair of runners on with a walk and an error. But Koger gunned down Palmer at the plate to end the inning. The defensive play seemed to fire up the Spartans offense.
West Hall exploded for 10 runs over the next three innings.
Sage said the middle of the West Hall order -- Carter Lott, Jeffrey Jenkins, Gabe Allison -- has been “on fire” of late and didn’t disappoint on Friday. The trio combined for eight hits, five RBI, and scored seven runs.
“No matter who has been on the mound lately they have been on a tear,” Sage said. “Despite us getting down early again the guys just stayed relaxed and went to work.”
The Spartans tied it in the fourth. Jenkins doubled to lead off and then scored on a bloop single by Dylan Simpson. Allison, who also singled, later scored on a RBI groundout by Clayton Jenkins, and Simpson and Koger both scored on a two-run single from Cameron Shirley to cap a four-run inning.
The Spartans continued the comeback in the fifth. Palmer was knocked out with one out after a pair of walks and two hits, including a RBI single by Allison for a 6-5 West Hall lead. J. Ben Haynes came in to relieve Palmer and was greeted rudely by Peyton Rendazzo, who belted a bases-clearing double to give the Spartans a 9-5 lead.
Jeffrey Jenkins extended West Hall’s lead to 11-5 in the sixth on a two-run home run.
While the Spartans offense was mounting the comeback, Murphy settled things down on the mound. Murphy went 2 2/3 innings surrendering no runs and just two hits and retired four of the final six batters he faced. Lott came on in the fifth and pitched the final three innings to get the save. Lott gave up two runs on just two hits.
“They did a real nice job and started throwing more strikes,” Sage said. “A lot of the younger guys are getting some innings so that’s helping get them that experience.”
But Lott ran into trouble in the sixth. The first two White County batters reached to start the inning and then after a strikeout and a pop out to second, West laced a two-run, two-out single to right scoring Austin Payne and Micah Flanagan to cut the West Hall lead to 11-7 heading to the seventh.
The Spartans added two huge insurance runs in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Lott and a RBI double from Allison.
Lott walked the first two batters in the seventh but retired the final three batters to close out the game.
West Hall will play host to Chestatee on Tuesday to open a critical three-game series next week.
White County travels to Blessed Trinity on Tuesday to start a three-game series.
