Baseball: Spartans rally for 7-AAA win over East Hall

OAKWOOD -- After a 16-day layoff because of the weather, the West Hall baseball team is trying to make up for lost time.

The Spartans completed a rough five-games-in-five-days stretch Monday night with a thrilling 8-7, come-from-behind win in eight innings over East Hall in both teams' Region 7-AAA opener at Spartans Field.

The win for West Hall (3-3, 1-0 Region 7-AAA) may have been more than just its region opener. For Spartans coach Dustin Rennspies, he hopes it's the beginning for a group looking for an identity.

"This is a new group with only three starters from last year," Rennspies said. "We had so many days off that they haven't really had a chance until the last five days to play as a team. I think this will give us some real confidence moving forward."

West Hall trailed 4-0, 5-2, and 7-3 before staging a comeback in the final two innings. And it was team small-ball that was the difference.

In the seventh inning, the Spartans scored four runs, the final two coming on a sacrifice fly and an RBI groundout. In the eighth, Elijah Butler beat out an infield single, went to third on a sacrifice bunt, and then scored on a perfectly executed squeeze by Merritt Gazaway to complete the comeback.

They may not have been in any position for a comeback if not for junior Trey Horton, who tossed 2 2/3 innings in relief allowing no hits and walking just one while fanning three.

Horton entered in the sixth inning with the bases loaded and one out with West Hall trailing 6-3 and East Hall (1-4, 0-1) on the verge of breaking the game open. He walked the Vikings' Jesse Cooper to force in the seventh run but then retired the next seven batters into the eighth inning.

"They learned how to play as a team and that will be a key for us to have success," Rennspies said. "Trey was outstanding. He did a great job of keeping us in the game and giving us a chance."

East Hall coach Wesley Crow, whose Vikings have faced a similar road as West Hall with five games in seven days, wasn't concerned about what losing a four-run lead would do to his team. The Vikings used four pitchers to try to hang on.

Starter Eli Stuart went six-plus innings scattering five hits and walking six and striking out seven. He left the game with a 7-3 lead.

"It's just one game," Crow said. "I don't think playing that many games had anything to with it. West Hall just kept swinging the bats. Eli was great but we just couldn't get that last out for him."

East Hall struck quickly taking advantage of five passed balls and two wild pitches in the top of the first inning. Jack Hagwood walked to lead off the game, stole second, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Hunter Strange, and then scored on a passed ball by starter Will Simmons. The Spartans looked to be out of the inning with minimal damage but Levi Crocker and Jesse Winters both walked and Crocker later scored after a pair of passed balls. Cole Smith walked and then scored on a RBI double by Tripp Rider for a 4-0 lead.

The Spartans tried to answer in the bottom of the first getting a pair of runners on base, including a single by Brian Newman. But Stuart got Butler to ground into a fielder's choice to end the inning.

West Hall finally broke through in the bottom of the second when Gazaway reached on an error, stole second, and advanced to third on another East Hall error on a Carter Lott grounder. Gazaway scored on a double-steal attempt to trim the lead to 4-1. Lott went to third on the double-steal after a third Vikings error and then scored on a fourth East Hall error in the inning to make it 4-2.

It stayed that until the fifth as both pitchers settled down. Simmons was dominating over the next three innings striking out 9 of the next 11 batters and giving up just one hit.

Stuart had to work out of jams allowing four hits and walking three through the first four innings. He even picked off a runner in the fourth to help stop a potential rally.

East Hall eventually pushed its lead to 5-2 in the top of the fifth as Hagwood was hit by a pitch with two strikes and then scored on the Spartans' first error of the game.

West Hall answered right back with a run in the bottom of the inning with Simmons walking to lead off and then courtesy-runner Tristan Wiehe moved to third on an error and scored on a RBI sacrifice fly by Gazaway to trail 5-3.

East Hall came right back again with two runs in the top of the sixth on two hits and an error to go with two more wild pitches. But the Vikings left the bases loaded as Horton was able to get out of the jam for West Hall.

Despite both teams combining to draw 15 walks and 14 hits, to go with seven combined errors, neither offense was able to get the hit to break things open. West Hall stranded 14 base runners while the Vikings left seven on base for the game.

Hagwood, Jesse Cooper, Cole Smith, Rider, and Jeremy Walls each had one hit for East Hall. Rider and Jesse Cooper each had one RBI for the Vikings.

The bottom of the order did most of the damage for West Hall. Gazaway, in the seventh spot, had two hits, three RBI and scored a run. Ninth-place hitter Cole Wilson had three hits for the Spartans. Butler had two hits and Newman and Horton each had one for West Hall.