By T. Scott Boatright
HICKS — In a pitching duel, fielding can play a crucial role.
And fielding — two errors by Simsboro compared to none by Hicks — played a big role in the outcome as the ninth-seeded Tigers fell 2-1 to the eighth-seeded home team in quarterfinals action Saturday of the Class B baseball playoffs.
Pitching also played a key role for both teams.
Hick’s Luke Williams gave up only two hits with three strikeouts and four walks while Simsboro’s Noah Thomas gave up three hits with three strikeouts and four walks with both pitchers going the distance.
“The difference was, one, we couldn’t hit the kid’s (Williams’) fastball,” said Simsboro coach Scott Hiers. “He walked one guy and was the difference.
“We also had a couple of unfortunate early errors that gave them a couple of unearned runs when the nerves were still going. In a game like this, you can’t give up a couple of runs early because you don’t know if it’s going to kill you in the end.”
Hiers was pleased with the way his pitcher competed on the mound.
“Noah technically should have thrown a shutout,” Hiers said. “We should have won 1-0 on Harrell’s home run. But that’s not what happened. It was a tough one.
“We just couldn’t get anything going on (Williams). We didn’t have any traffic on the bases. And when we did get somebody on, we’d get a strikeout. Our kids fought hard. They’re obviously disappointed, but they had a great year and set the bar high for the team coming after them next year. I’m really proud of them. It unfortunately just didn’t go our way tonight.”
Williams opened the game with three straight strikeouts before, with two outs, the Pirates took a 1-0 lead on a throwing error that allowed Hagan who had reached second base on a double.
Another double put the Pirates back into scoring position with a runner at third before Thomas tossed a strikeout to end the inning.
Williams threw two more Ks in the top of the second inning before the Pirates added the winning run on another Simsboro error.
Simsboro’s lone run came in the top of the fourth when Chris Harrell smacked his seventh home run of the season over the right field fence.
“Every year he gets a little bit better and adds a little more power — that kind of thing,” Hiers said. “Next year should be a big year for him as a senior.
“He’s going to have to learn how to hit when people don;t want to pitch to him because there’s going to be a lot of instances where he’s going to have to take bunts and walks because other teams aren’t going to want to throw to him.”
Hiers said that despite the loss, his Tigers should feel good about the 23-9 season they had.
“I think we represented ourselves pretty well tonight, just like Choudrant did earlier today in a close loss to Pitkin,” Hiers said. “It’s nothing for our team to hang their head over except for that it was the last one. The kids should be proud of the season they had. I’m definitely proud of them. We just came up one run short.”
