By T. Scott Boatright
Even decent speed can kill when dealt consistently on the Class B baseball level.
The Simsboro Tigers found that out Friday night in the opening round of the Division V Select School Boys baseball playoffs on the SHS Baseball Field.
Doyline pitcher Noah Spears seemingly mesmerized the Tigers’ batters with a mix of fastball and offspeed pitches as the Doyline Panthers defeated Simsboro 3-0 in seven innings.
Spears faced 21 batters during the no-hitter, recording 18 strikeouts in the process.
Using something around a 85-mph fastball mixed with occasional change-ups, Spears stymied the Tigers’ batting order, giving up only a single to Mark Hollaway while recording 18 strikeouts.
“We crowded the plate. Our plan was to try to push him out of the zone,” said Simsboro coach Scott Hiers of the game plan against the Panthers. “We could have been standing in the middle of the plate. He was just throwing it to the mitt.
“He’s just a good pitcher. He threw strikes with his fastball, he threw strikes with his breaking ball and commanded the zone. He didn’t have a single walk.”
“Two years in a row in the playoffs we’ve faced a buzzsaw.” Hiers said. “If we ever want to win one of those, we’ve got to learn to hit pitching. We didn’t do that. And we had a good plan. For the most part, we executed that plan. We just didn’t get it done. Pitching and defense wins at any level, and they had that.”
Spears opened and then closed the game with three perfect innings, striking out all three Simsboro batters in both. He struck out the first 11 batters he faced before giving up a groundout to close the fourth inning.
“We needed to be perfect. We needed to push that into extra innings. Our kids played really hard. They had a great attitude the whole way through. In years past we would have folded and lost 10-0, but up until the very end tonight we had a shot. And that’s all anybody can ask for.”
The game was scoreless until the Panthers scored a run in the top of the sixth inning when Caysten Mingo tripled with two outs before scoring on a Dakota Stewart double.
Doyline added two more in the top of the seventh.
Simsboro closes out its season at 18-11.
“We’re still a work in progress, but the important thing is you can see progress being made,” Hiers said. “Baseball is becoming important for these players and this school. And it’s the perfect place for it.
“Right now, we just need to keep pushing forward. Keep working to get better and make this baseball program what it should be. This was just another learning experience. We’ll learn from it. And we’ll get better because of it.”
