Park Cities News – Thursday, March 22, 2007
By Art Finley
It was a tough week for the Highland Park varsity baseball team last week as the Scots came out on the short end of three close 10-4A games. The Scots fell, 2-0, to 16-1 Mesquite Poteet last Wednesday at PHS. The Scots were haunted by errors in a 5-4 loss to Rockwall-Heath last Friday night and Tuesday a late rally by J.J. Pearce led to a 4-3, Mustang win. The Scots now stand at 1-3 in district play. Pearce leads with a 4-0 mark.
Highland Park and Mesquite Poteet were forced to wait a day for their 10-4A showdown last Wednesday. Both teams sent undefeated pitchers to the mound. Senior Wyatt Holiday started for Highland Park, coming off a two-hitter in HP’s district opening win over Terrell. Mesquite Poteet sent their ace Teddy Nowell, who was seeking his fifth win of the season. It lived up to the billing of a pitcher’s duel but miscues by the Scot defense allowed the Pirates to take a 2-0 victory and remain on top in 10-4A.
The Scots got a base-hit in the first inning from junior outfielder Seth Gardner but he was stranded as Nowell collected his first of the first of his eight strikeouts to end the HP first inning.
Holliday came out on top of his game for the Scots as he fanned the first two Poteet batters. Holliday had to pitch out of jam, however, when a single and two walks loaded the bases. Holliday was able to induce a liner to first-base that was grabbed by sophomore first-baseman Crayton Bare.
Scot junior center-fielder Dutch Crews got into scoring position on a Pirate error in the top of the 2nd inning on a bobbled ball in the outfield. Nowell responded with a key strikeout and fly ball out to end the Scot threat. Unfortunately for Holliday and the Scots it would be the last scoring opportunity of the contest for HP as Nowell turned in an 11-strikeout complete game to improve to 5-0 on the 2007 season.
A pair of throwing errors on Highland Park in the bottom of the 2nd led to an unearned run and 1-0 lead for the Pirates. Holliday showed his toughness by striking out Nowell and getting Pirate third-baseman Bryce Cummings to ground out to Scot SS Joey Hainsfurther to avoid any further damage.
Mesquite Poteet managed another run in their half of the fourth inning. Taylor Wilcox led off with a single and was able to steal second and third. Holliday got leadoff hitter Nick Allen to pup-up and appeared to have the second out on a sharp ground ball to third from Nowell. However, the Scots hurt themselves again with a poor throw that resulted in Wilcox making it a 2-0 Score.
Nowell found his groove and retired 10 straight Scot batters after Crews reached the second inning. Highland Park’s Johnathan Perlman rapped a two-out single off Nowell in the fifth inning, but there would be no HP rally as Nowell picked off Perlman to end the inning. Nowell was able to hold Highland Park at bay in the 6th and 7th for the 2-0 win. Holliday was saddled with the hard-luck loss after allowing only two hits to go with seven strikeouts.
Holliday had allowed just four hits and struck out 18 batters in his last 13 innings heading into the J.J. Pearce game. But before the battle with their arch rivals, the Rockwall Heath Hawks came into Scotland Yard last Friday night and once again the Scot defense was the main culprit in the HP’s 5-4 loss to the first-year program that has no senior players.
Heath was able to load the bases in the top of the 3rd as the Scots had an error and pitcher Travis Jones was squeezed for a pair of walks. Heath freshman catcher Drew Benefield delivered two RBI’s as the Hawks grabbed the early lead. Jones, who struck out the side in the 2nd, struck out Heath designated-hitter Jace Hudson to end the inning.
Highland Park came right back in the bottom of the third with a pair of runs to tie the game. Bare and Perlman started the rally, leading off with walks from Hawk starter Micah Headley. Highland Park captain Nick Flabiano drilled a ball to the wall for a two-RBI double.
Highland Park took its only lead of the game in the fourth inning. Mason Woodley led off and was hit by a pitch. Woodley scored on an RBI bund by Perlman for a 3-2 score.
Heath took advantage of a leadoff double in the fifth inning by leadoff hitter Charlie Martin, who moved to third on a ground ball. Martin scored on another ground ball out before Jones retired first-baseman Drew VerHagen on a fly ball to end the threat.
It was the sixth inning that proved to be the Scots’ undoing. Rockwall Heath got their third and fourth hits of the game off Jones and another Scot error allowed two Hawks to score for three runs for a 5-3 lead.
Highland Park tried to get a two-out rally going against Headly in the bottom of the sixth as Bare hit a double and Perlman followed with a walk. Heath Coach Greg Harvey then pulled Headly in favor of first-baseman VerHagen, who got the final out of the inning on a ground ball.
Jones mowed down the Hawks in order in the seventh. Jones went all the way with six strikeouts, including VerHagen to end the Heath seventh. Unfortunately the Scots were able to provide only four hits on the night.
Highland Park did not go down without a fight, however, as Flabiano hit his second double of the game and scored on a sacrifice fly by Gardner to cut the lead to 5-4, VerHagen induced a ground ball to end the game and put the Scots in a bind at 1-2 in 10-4A play.
Tuesday night the Scots traveled to Richardson to tangle with the 3-0 J.J. Pearce Mustangs. The Scots ran into a dominating pitching performance from the Mustang’s Brent Parker, who struck out 13 Scots in a 4-3 win. Highland Park sent out Holliday, who once again pitched extremely well only to come away with a loss.
Pearce took the lead in the bottom of the first inning when first-baseman Jake Williams hit a fly ball to right field that carried with the benefit of the windy conditions, over the wall for a home-rum.
Highland Park put together a two-out rally in the top of the third inning to take a 2-1 lead. Flabiano got it started by reaching on a throwing error. Junior Seth Gardner followed with a single off Powers that set up a two-RBI double by senior captain Will Russell that gave HP the lead at 2-1.
Highland Park built a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning when Perlman drilled a two-out home-run over the center-field wall.
J.J. Pearce regained the lead for good with a three-run fifth inning. Powers let off with a single that eventually let to the bases being loade3d with no outs. A hit by Rudy Owens and a Scot error allowed the Mustangs to regain the upper hand at 5-4.
Powers did the rest for Pearce as he struck out the final five Scot batters to preserve the one-run win.
Highland Park will travel to Forney on Friday night for a 7:30 p.m. tilt with the Jackrabbits. The Scots will play the next day at The Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, the home of the Texas Rangers, in a non-district game with 5A Colleyville Heritage. Game-time is set for 6:00 p.m.