In final week, Amherst tops Bedford, splits with Hill City

By Laura Clark

Published: July 16, 2008

Amherst 4, Hill City 3

Hill City 6, Amherst 5

Amherst split the 5-inning doubleheader against Hill City on July 11 at Amherst County High School. The Amherst team finished the regular season 5-3 and advanced to the NABF World Series in the High School Division. The tournament begins July 23 in Lynchburg.

Amherst led the first two innings 2-1. M.J. Wells’ sacrifice fly scored William Sligh, and Kirby Anderson’s single scored Chris McDaniel. Hill City took the lead in the top of the third with RBIs from Gip Hobbs and Logan Collins. Amherst tied the game in the bottom of the inning when Anderson singled again.

Then in the fifth, Anderson knocked in the winning run in with a hit that popped over the third baseman.

“When one person starts hitting, the rest of the team starts flowing off that,” Anderson said. “It’s really more of a mental thing than a physical thing. Options come when you hit the ball. We’d been putting the ball into play all game and finally got some breaks.”

Dakota Stinnett pitched the entire game for Amherst. He had two strikeouts and one walk. Kent Brizendine took the loss for Hill City.

Amherst was poised to win the second game, carrying a 5-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning.

Despite assistant coach Gary Evans’ advice—“Do not take anything for granted! Go to work!”—the Amherst defense started to collapse.

Starting pitcher Brett Ashwell walked the first two batters, and Josh Morris singled to load the bases with no outs. Hill City’s Kent Brizendine doubled deep to center field, scoring two runners to make the game 5-3.

Amherst brought in Dakota Stinnett to relieve Ashwell, and Hill City picked up two outs on high fly balls. But Amherst wasn’t out of danger yet. Bobby Kozera doubled to center field and Brizendine dodged catcher Colby Mays going for the tag on the third baseline to tie the game.

Because Dakota Stinnett pitched the entire first game, Amherst brought in Matt Stinnett for the extra innings. The two teams were scoreless through the sixth inning.

In the seventh, Anderson was in scoring position on third but Amherst couldn’t bring him home as Hill City turned a double play.

In the bottom of the seventh, Hill City brought out aggressive base running. Matt Stinnett walked Logan Collins, who moved to second on a pass ball. Collins advanced to third when Dutch Lovern grounded out. Collins was antsy to make it home. With Nate Williams at the plate, Stinnett let loose a wild pitch. Mays knocked it down near the plate, but turned to look for the ball behind him and Collins was too quick, crossing home to give Hill City a 6-5 win.

“We felt like we had the lead,” Cody Stinnett, who finished the game at third base, said. “Everybody just kind of quit at the last second. I saw (Collins) go, and I tried to break for it, but it just didn’t happen. (Mays) couldn’t see the ball under his feet. It was just bad luck.”

“Playing that many innings, errors and walks are going to come back and hurt you,” head coach Joey Crawford said. “Brett pitched great the whole game. He didn’t give up a hit until the last inning.”

In the second game, McDaniel led Amherst, going 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Wells was also 2-for-4 with one run. Cody Stinnett was 2-for-4 with one RBI.

In the first game, Anderson was 3-for-3 with 3 RBIs. William Sligh was 2-for-3 and scored three runs. Wells was 1-for-3 with one RBI.

Amherst 5, Bedford 3

The Amherst NABF team trailed Bedford 3-0 through six innings before putting together an offensive rally and scoring five runs to win on July 10 at Amherst County High School.

Kirby Anderson started the Amherst comeback at the plate, knocking a grounder down the first baseline. Cody Stinnett then singled down the third baseline as well. Then Matt Stinnett put Amherst on the board with an RBI single to center field. Colby Mays singled to load the bases with two outs.

Deep in the lineup, Jesse Whitt stepped to the plate, and the infield defense took several giant steps toward the 5-foot-6, 120-pound batter. Whitt swung and missed relief pitcher Eric Lafon’s first curveball, but he connected on the second, popping it just over Bedford’s shortstop. Whitt tied the game with two RBIs on his double.

Mays scored on a wild pitch, and Trevor Woodson hit an RBI single to give Amherst a 5-3 lead going into the bottom of the seventh.

“We’ve been on a losing streak,” Whitt said. “I guess we got fired up in the last inning, decided we wanted to win. We stepped up that last inning and scored five runs, and we haven’t really scored five runs in the last three games.”

The lead animated pitcher Dakota Stinnett, who relieved starter Cody Stinnett in the seventh. Lead-off Bedford batter Adam Warnalis singled, but there he stayed, as Stinnett struck out the next two batters, each time whooping in triumph.  Bedford’s Jarid Jones grounded out to shortstop Chris McDaniel to end the inning and any chance at a Bedford comeback.

“I had all the faith in the world in those guys,” Amherst coach Joey Crawford said. “For the most part, we’ve been a good-hitting team. We’re capable of doing it; it’s just putting it all together. The first six innings we had five base runners the whole time. Then we had seven in the last inning.”

Bedford jumped on Amherst early, taking advantage of some control issues on the mound, and sluggish defense. Jake Tanner singled and scored Aaron Lafon when Amherst overthrew first base. Then in the second, pass balls and wild pitches moved Bedford players around the bases. Brett Dietrich scored on a wild pitch, and Eric Lafon scored Kody Outhong to give Bedford a 3-0 lead.

In the third, Amherst’s defense picked up and kept Bedford from getting to base on hits. In six innings Cody Stinnett had four strikeouts and three walks.

“Cody is effectively wild,” Crawford said. “Cody and Dakota have both been great the whole year. They’ve been our one-two guys, and both of them pitch extremely well. Even in the losses, they’ve pitched extremely well.”

With the win, Amherst moved to 6-4 overall, 4-2 in their division.