As of early this week, there was only one high school baseball team in the South Central Association conference with a 2-0 record: Houston.
The Diamond Tigers have taken the early lead in the league by posting another shut out, downing Willow Springs, 5-0, on Monday (April 6) at Tiger Field.
EARLY OUTBURST ENOUGH
Houston started fast in the win, putting 4 runs on the board in the bottom of the first inning.
The Tigers got what turned out to be the winning run with no outs, after freshman Stryker Sloan led off with a walk, stole second and came home on a sharp single to left by senior Aaden Scantlin.
Scantlin advanced to second on a throw home, stole third moments later and then scored Houston’s second run on an error. Before the inning was over, the Tigers notched their third run on a fielder’s choice and got their fourth on an RBI single by freshman Blake Sanders.
Neither team scored again until the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Tigers got a run in unusual fashion. Sophomore Jackson “Chucky” Morgan walked and ended up on third moments later when Sloan reached base on an error. Sloan then stole second, and Jackson stole home when the Bears tried to get Sloan.
Freshman Tucker Venn had his best outing of the season on the mound, allowing only 2 hits in 6 2/3 innings of work, while striking out 12 and walking only 1. After Venn reached his pitch count limit, freshman Blake Sanders faced one batter in the top of the seventh inning, and the game ended on a softly-hit comebacker to Sanders.
“This was the Tucker we expect to see on the mound,” said HHS head coach Brent Hall.
The Tigers finished with 7 hits in the contest, with seven different player getting singles. They also stole 7 bases, and committed 2 errors, while the Bears (1-7, 0-1 SCA) didn’t steal a base and committed 5 errors.
“We started off well, scoring 4 early, then Willow made a pitching change and their pitcher did a good job changing speeds and kept them in the game,” Hall said. “We could have possibly blown the game open in the sixth, but a couple of baserunning errors were 2 of our 3 outs that inning.
“A lot of what was off for us was little things which add up to bigger things in the end,” Hall said.
TO VIEW A PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE GAME (WITH THE OPTION TO PURCHASE PHOTOS), CLICK HERE.
This week, the Tigers (6-4, 2-0 SCA) host an SCA matchup with Salem on Thursday and play in the Plato Spring Classic tournament on Saturday.
Houston will be very busy traveling next week, playing at Mountain Grove on Monday, Norwood on Tuesday, Thayer on Thursday and Plato on Friday.
“We need to clean some things up to be able to compete at a high level game in and game out,” Hall said, “but with rain and a stretch of games we have not been able to practice like we need to work on those things. I’m confident this group will improve on all we need to do to be able to have a chance to beat anybody we play.”
