Surf's up: Indians out
Lessons learned from previous encounter propel Hurricane to a 4-2 win over Fairfield.
By Jay Morrison, Staff Writer
HAMILTON — The Fairfield High baseball team wasn't blown away by a Hurricane, but the Indians were knocked off balance and, eventually, knocked out of the tournament by one.
Wilmington pitcher Daron Williams threw a complete-game three-hitter to lead the Hurricane to a 4-2 victory against Fairfield in the first round of the Division I sectional tournament Monday at Hamilton's Stang Field.
The victory moved Wilmington (11-13) into a second-round game Wednesday against No. 4 seed Lakota West at HHS.
"It's hard to win a game when you only have three hits," said FHS coach Rod Hubbard, whose team finished the year 12-13.
"Hats off to (Williams)," Hubbard continued. "He threw strikes, and he kept the ball down. It doesn't matter how hard you throw it if you keep the ball down and hit your spots."
Williams struck out seven, walked one and hit a batter in his 103-pitch outing. He gave up a pair of singles to Brennan Croy and one to Phil Bauer, and that was it.
"We felt going into the game we had to attack them with off-speed stuff, and Daron was able to get his off-speed stuff over today," Wilmington coach Jeff Craycraft said. "He and our catcher (Derek Williams) are part of a set of triplets, and they were really on the same wavelength today. I only called about 10 pitches, and Derek called the rest."
Derek also got the offense going with a solo home run off Fairfield starter and loser Mike Haney (2-1) in the top of the fourth inning, beginning what would be a six-hit, four-run frame for the Hurricane. Four of those six hits never left the infield, but they were still enough to chase Haney from the mound.
"Those little things kept that inning alive," Hubbard said. "Instead of outs, they became runners. And in those situations you have got to get outs. They made two really nice bunts and put the ball into no-man's land, and we couldn't make the play."
FHS relievers Sean Elimlinger, John Burden and Trevor Robinson combined to hold Wilmington to a pair of singles in 3 2/3 innings of shutout bullpen work, but the four runs already on the board were too much to overcome.
The Indians did have their chances, though.
After Croy led off the bottom of the fourth with a single, Bauer walked to put runners on first and second with no outs. Kyle Ottaway followed with what looked like a nice sacrifice bunt, but the ball bounced high and hit Ottaway well out of the batter's box, resulting in a dead-ball out that sent the runners back to first and second, and Williams retired the next two hitters to get out of the inning.
Then in the fifth, Alex Fries led off by reaching on an error that kicked away from Wilmington shortstop Tyler Woolett. But when Fries tried to stretch it into a two-base error, Woolett retrieved the ball and threw a strike to second baseman Bryce Martin for the out.
"We had some opportunities during the course of the game that we could have capitalized on, but we just couldn't get that big clutch hit," Hubbard said. "It's been hit or miss all year with that."
After the back-to-back singles by Croy and Bauer to lead off the sixth, Williams retired the next six batters he faced — including a pair of sacrifice flies by Ottaway and Drew McGuire — to seal the win.
"We played (Fairfield) earlier in the year (an 11-4 Tribe win) and we knew they were a good hitting team," Craycraft said. "What we tried to do was control their hitting and running by pitching inside and throwing fastballs on curveball counts. That was our gameplan, and it worked today.
"I don't know if it'll work Wednesday (against Lakota West), but we live another day," Craycraft continued. "We're happy with what happened today. Now we'll go back to the drawing board and get ready for Lakota West."
Wilmington 000 400 0 — 4 11 2
Fairfield 000 002 0 — 2 3 2
WP — Daron Williams; LP — Mike Haney (2-1); HR — W: Derek Williams
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