HAMILTON — The Hamilton High School baseball team showed the late-inning magic Saturday it hopes will carry it back to Trustmark Park for a chance to win a state title.
Held hitless through five innings, Graham Pritchett broke up the no-hitter in the sixth inning and then delivered the game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift Hamilton to a 3-2 victory against Eupora in Game 2 of its best-of-three Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 2 North State playoff series.
Coupled with a dominating pitching performance by Chase Reeves on Friday in an 11-0 victory in six innings, Hamilton (17-5) advances to the North State title series. It awaits the winner of the East Webster-Mantachie series, which will play a Game 3 at 6 p.m. Monday at Mantachie. East Webster forced the deciding game with a 4-3 victory in nine innings on Saturday.
Hamilton finished with six hits, all in the final two at-bats against starting pitcher Charles Morton, who walked three and struck out six. The left-hander kept the Lions at bay until the sixth when Pritchett, who struck out his first two plate appearances, singled. Parker Rye”s fielder”s choice erased Pritchett at second. Rye advanced to second base on a wild pitch and scored on Reeves” triple down the right-field line.
Reeves, a left-handed hitting senior who will attend the University of Mississippi on a baseball scholarship, scorched the ball down the line that fueled the Lions” comeback.
“That was a big spark that broke the ice,” Hamilton coach Lewis Earnest said. “I don”t even know if the first baseman saw that ball.”
Morton stranded Reeves at third to end the inning, but he couldn”t work out of even more trouble in the next inning.
With one out, Ethan Earnest doubled nearly as hard as Reeves” triple. He then made what might have seemed like an inconsequential play at the time when he stole third base on a strikeout by Cole Gill. The steal enabled Earnest to score easily on a single back up the middle by Austin Lewis that tied the game. Lewis drove the first pitch he saw from Morton back up the middle to rile up his teammates.
“Going into the day, we were hitting .365 as a team, and everybody is hitting over. 300,” Earnest said. “Up and down the lineup we have had some clutch hits. (Lewis) has had several big hits. He is a quiet guy who doesn”t say much or show much emotion, but he usually gets the job done. He tends to his business and gets lost in the shuffle a lot of times.”
Austin Earnest singled to push Lewis to second. Lewis then stole second ahead of Pritchett”s game-winning single back up the middle.
“It was ugly for a while, but I will take it,” coach Earnest said. “I was proud of the fact we didn”t give up. We battled at the end. That”s the sign of character and determination. That”s what good teams do.”
Earnest said he was especially proud of Pritchett, who followed the Lions” approach by not trying to do too much with the bat and by taking the pitch up the middle. He said Pritchett has struggled at times this season with swings that are too big, but he adjusted well in a clutch situation Saturday.
“The last several games he has started out the same way and struggled at the beginning, but he makes the adjustments and shortens up and puts the ball in play,” Earnest said. “That”s what he did today. I am afraid he was going to do it too late.”
Austin Earnest scattered five hits in a complete-game effort. Coach Earnest said his son didn”t have his best fastball, but he walked only two with nine strikeouts.
“He kept the ball around the zone, kept his curveball down, and mixed it up enough to keep them off stride,” coach Earnest said. “He only gave up five hits, and there was nothing real hard. He just battled and competed.”
Coach Earnest said the same for his players, who didn”t let early frustration against Morton prevent them from regrouping later in the game. He said the coaches encouraged the players to get on top of the plate and not to allow Morton to throw anything by them. The Lions responded late, jumping on first pitches and denying Morton the chance to get ahead in the count with first-pitch fastballs.
“Maybe it was something they had to get desperate before they bought into it,” Earnest said.
The victory has Hamilton two wins shy of returning to Trustmark Park, the site of the state championship series. Hamilton advanced last season and lost in two games to Richton. Earnest hopes the Lions can use their latest victory to stir the memories of championship Hamilton baseball teams of the past.
“Our guys just expect (to get to the North State title series),” Earnest said. “At the beginning of the year, the coaches were thinking we would get a .500 and we were going to be doing good. We started out in the jamboree and we didn”t win anything. I was worried, but I don”t know. Steadily, through the year, we have gotten better. We”re not a big power team, but we have guys up and down the lineup who can put the ball in play.
“You have a chance if you have some arms to go out there and throw some strikes, and I feel our pitching is good enough if we can just support them. That was the case today. Our pitching was good enough, but we didn”t get the run support until late.
“We probably needed a game like this — an attention-getter — something to shoot some energy into them. I was glad to see them rush out onto the field and congratulate each other. Winning never gets old, but you need a new life every now and then, something to put a little fire under us. Hopefully that will help us today.”
On Friday, Reeves struck out 12 and allowed only one hit. He also had two hits, including a home run, to lead a 16-hit attack. Kyle Dahlem and Gill each had three hits, while Austin Welch had two hits, including a home run. Austin Earnest also had two hits.
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