Westran loses districts in extra innings

Despite their great season the Westran Hornet baseball team couldn’t quite get it done last week in their loss to Carrollton in the second round of districts. Originally scheduled to be played at district host Salisbury, the game was moved at the last minute to Westran due to poor field conditions.

After the late 7 o’clock start time, the Hornets got out to an early lead when number three hitter Tyler Hunt hit a solo home run in the first inning to get things rolling for Westran.

In the second the Hornets added two more runs on Matt George’s 2 RBI double that gave Westran a 3-0 lead.

Now all season long the trend had been that if you gave Westran an early lead it was almost a sure victory in the win column. But this being district play and Carrollton trying to keep their season alive were able to battle back and tie the game in the fourth inning when Westran pitcher Tyler Hunt struggled to find the strike zone and surrendered two free passes and a single to left field that left the bases loaded for one of Carrollton’s top hitters who proceeded to tie the game on a bases clearing triple.

The triple in the third would be the last time either team scored until the final at bat in the game which didn’t come until the 11^th frame. Both Westran starting pitcher Tyler Hunt and Carrollton hurler Zach Davis settled in and kept their team in the game for as long as they could. High School rules regulate that no player may pitch more than ten innings in a three day period and both Tyler and Zach went ten innings in this district match-up.

Carrollton was able to get on base in their half of the 11^th inning and take the walk-off win on an RBI double to advance them to the district championship game versus Salisbury.

Tyler Hunt pitched 10 innings giving up 3 runs on 3 hits with 18 strike outs and 12 walks. Carrollton pitcher Zach Davis also threw 10 innings and gave up 3 runs on 6 hits while striking out 20 and walking 1. Reggie Nute took the loss pitching 1/3 innings with 1 run on 1 hit and 1 walk.

Westran ends their season ten games above .500 at 14-4. Tyler Hunt ended the season with a .460 batting average, 4 home runs, 32 RBI’s and 17 stolen bases. Matt George ended with a .413 batting average, 13 RBI’s and 11 stole bases. Reggie Nute finished with a .388 average, Tyler Aulber .340 and Drake Buffington at .333.

As for pitching, Tyler’s final numbers were 6 wins 2 losses, a 1.20 ERA, in 61 innings pitched Tyler only gave up 10 earned runs and 24 hits and struck out 137 batters and walked 27. Reggie Nute finished the year 7-2 with a 0.70 ERA. In 31 innings Reggie only gave up 3 runs and 21 hits while striking out 35 batters and only surrendering 5 walks.