With 14 seniors departed from last season's 35-win state tournament squad, Silverdale coach Lance Rorex knew the Seahawk baseball rebuild would be a challenge. And when opening day rolled around this year only to produce an 18-run loss at Baylor, the veteran coach knew one thing for sure: things would only get better.
"This group is learning. But we are getting better every time the cleats hit the dirt. We are better than we were two weeks ago in that opener and I expect we will be better in another two weeks. That's the beauty of this game," Rorex said following Thursday night's 15-8 victory at Ooltewah.
Since dropping that inauspicious opener, Silverdale has rolled off eight wins in its last nine outings and last night was the Seahawks fifth in a row with his young bunch and Rorex definitely saw plenty of things he liked.
"We have been struggling some hitting, but we had some good approaches tonight and got some barrels on some balls. A lot of two-out hits to get runs in, and that was nice to see," added Rorex.
The Seahawks (8-2) lashed out 12 hits, including four doubles to score multiple runs in five of the seven innings at Bud Ball Field. Silverdale also took advantage of 11 walks, three hit batters and a couple of Owl errors to push across double digit runs for the fourth time this young season. Seven of those runs were plated on two-out hits.
Silverdale set the tone early with a pair of first inning runs on a two-out Owen Phillips laser double down the right field line. The inning was extended after a two-out fly ball to left was dropped when two Owl defenders ran into each other, and Phillips made them pay.
Ooltewah (1-7) got one of the runs back in its first at bat when Brock Smallen doubled to right to chase home JT Trent who had worked a leadoff walk, but Smallen was thrown out to end the inning at the plate on a great throw from Caden Bancroft to Tanner Bayne following Gavin Fields hard hit to left.
Ooltewah managed to knot it at 2-2 with some small ball following Luke Parr's double off the wall in center. A perfect sac bunt moved Parr to third and he trotted home on a ground out. Both squads traded big four run innings in the third which also ended the night for both starting pitchers. A pair of walks, a two-run double by Bennett Reagan and Jake Murray's RBI single pushed across three runs before Jaxson Carsten lifted a deep sac fly to make it 6-2 Silverdale.
The Owls responded though with a four spot in the bottom of the third thanks to a couple of Silverdale miscues and Parr's run-scoring single. Smallen opened the frame with a single before a walk and hit by pitch juiced the bases. Parr produced a swinging bunt that refused to go foul down the third base line to push across a run before an errant pickoff attempt at third chased in two more runs. A mishandled grounder to short was good enough to knot it back up at 6-6.
But on a night when pitching wasn't a premium with Ooltewah using three hurlers and needing 195 pitches between them to get 21 outs and Silverdale tossing 132 pitches with its three arms, the Seahawks got a masterful shutdown performance from Maddux Hasty. The freshman lefty went three scoreless innings, allowing just one runner on a hit batsmen that was quickly erased on a fantastic throw from Silverdale catcher Tanner Bayne on a steal attempt. Hasty needed just 40 pitches to retire all nine hitters he faced, striking out four along the way.
"Maddux was a difference maker tonight. He probably could have finished the game, but with the big lead we wanted to get some more work in. He was in control out there, though, and very impressive," added Rorex of his gem.
Unfortunately, the Owls didn't have an answer on the hill as Silverdale put up a pair in the fourth, three more in the fifth and another four in the sixth. Reagan had the big hit in the third again with a two-out bases-loaded single for his fourth RBI on the night. In the fourth, Brett Oxford plated two runs with a single to left and Phillips drove in another with his safety.
In the fifth, Drake Dills followed up Jake Murray's single, a hit batter and a walk with a bases-loaded double for two RBI before Bayne and Hasty each plated runs to make it 15-6 and send in wholesale changes for the final couple of innings.
Phillips, Reagan and Murray each had two hits for the winners while Ooltewah got two hits from Parr and Smallen as the Owls managed just five hits.
|
SILVERDALE
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
0
|
-
|
15
|
12
|
4
|
|
OOLTEWAH
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
-
|
8
|
5
|
2
|
Rogers, Hasty (4), Reagan (7) and Bayne, Shelton (7); Parr, Harper (4), Reilly (6) and Fields.
(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail,com)