Hurricanes follow Beck-ing order to 3A playoff victory

Senior’s bases-clearing double in first sets tone

Friday, May 16, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DARWIN WEIGEL Great Mills’ Matt Jackson steals second base under Huntingtown infielder Tony Bowen during the Hurricanes’ 3-1 3A South regional playoff win. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DARWIN WEIGEL Huntingtown’s Chris Gaines is seconds too late with the tag as as Great Mills’ Matt Jackson steals third base. Huntingtown won, 3-1.

‘‘I’m comfortable at short,” Beck said, ‘‘but I’ll play anywhere they need me.”

He also looked pretty comfortable at the plate Tuesday as his bases-loaded double cleared the way for a 3-1 win over visiting Great Mills in the 3A South regional quarterfinals.

‘‘It’s a huge win for our program at this point,” Huntingtown coach Guy Smith said. ‘‘The three things we told them was adapt, overcome and achieve, and we did those three things today. The kids played great today.”

Fourth-seeded Huntingtown (13-6) tackled La Plata yesterday in the regional semifinals, too late to be included in this edition, with the winner moving on to the championship game, scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday.

Beck pushed his Hurricanes into the next round with his clutch hit in the bottom of the first inning. Leadoff hitter Tony Bowen reached on an error and Joe Karbowski pushed a bunt single between first base and the mound.

‘‘That was bad communication between [the pitcher] and the first baseman,” said Great Mills coach Steve Wolfe as his team finishes the season at 8-11.

Spencer Wolfe then walked on four pitches and Beck pounded a one ball, two strike pitch to left-center field that cleared the bases.

‘‘I was just looking for my pitch and I got it,” said Beck, who entered the game with a batting average just over .440 and leads the team in nearly every offensive category. ‘‘It felt real good.”

‘‘When you get bases loaded and score runs with your best player, that’s all you ask for,” Smith said. ‘‘We’re going to play small ball, everybody knows that. We put the bat on the ball and we make you play your position.”

Another Hurricane who played his position pretty well was Huntingtown pitcher Brian Lusby. Relying primarily on his fastball with a few sliders and off-speed pitches thrown in, the junior scattered six hits and struck out five in six innings of work. He did not walk anyone and left in the seventh after issuing back-to-back hits.

‘‘I was mostly hitting my spots and corners,” said Lusby, who threw 61 pitches, 44 of them for strikes.

‘‘That’s the way he’s been all year,” Smith said of Lusby, who is undefeated on the season. ‘‘He pounds the strike zone and makes you swing the bat. We had a whole lot of confidence to go with him today.”

Wolfe added: ‘‘We’ve been working on the mental approach to the game with the kids all season. You have to be ready from the first pitch and make your adjustments at the plate earlier. We finally did that, but by then it was too late.”

Lusby retired the first 10 batters he faced before Great Mills’ Will Anderson singled with one out in the fourth.

‘‘One hit wasn’t going to kill me,” Lusby said. ‘‘I’d rather have zeros in the run column than zeros in the hit column.”

Lusby, who did not throw more than 14 pitches in any inning, deflected the attention toward his teammates behind him.

‘‘I’d rather it be about my teammates than myself,” he said.

But Lusby’s win would not come without some angst.

After Great Mills’ Matt Jackson and Carlos Cruz led off the seventh with a pair of base hits, Beck came on in relief and struck out the first batter he faced.

But with Jackson at second and Cruz perched on first, Calvin Shubrooks hit a slow roller to second. Infielder Tony Bowen tagged out Cruz, but overthrew first base in an attempt to complete the double play. First baseman Steve McDonald chased down the ball and fired a throw to second and Shubrooks was tagged out to end the game, seconds after Jackson had crossed the plate.

‘‘I was like, ‘Will somebody please make the last out?’ Beck said.

‘‘I was thinking to myself, ‘Oh no, we’re going to let this one get away,’” Lusby said. ‘‘But [McDonald] made a perfect throw to second.”

Not to be outdone was Great Mills’ pitcher Cruz.

The junior allowed four hits and fanned two. He also walked one, but credited his teammates behind him.

‘‘My team really came through for me,” he said. ‘‘Every ball that was hit to them, they got me the out. I was real pleased with my defense today.”

After the Beck two-base hit, the junior retired the next five batters and 12 of the next 13.

‘‘I really took it upon myself to get the next outs that inning and the next innings,” said Cruz, who threw 77 pitches, 70 percent of them for strikes. Wolfe said his team lost 8 of 15 games that were decided by two runs or less.

‘‘I would have to say it’s kind of the story of our season,” he said, sporting his signature wraparound sunglasses. ‘‘I thought we played two good parts of the three: We had good pitching and we played pretty good defense; we just didn’t adjust well at the plate to hit the ball. I don’t know about disappointed; I’m just frustrated a little bit, because overall we probably outplayed them.

‘‘I will say this much for them,” Wolfe added. ‘‘They were good at picking up other aspects of the game such as pitching and defense so those two things got better. But the hitting came along too late.”

The unsung hero of the day was arguably Huntingtown assistant coach Jim Donahue, who was singled out for his duties to get the field in playing shape after two days of steady rain.

His work allowed the game to be played and Huntingtown to get a day off before the next round.

‘‘Jim Donahue did an unbelievable job getting the field ready, so a lot of the win was up to him,” said Smith, who also singled out all the parents who chipped in to help. ‘‘He definitely gets a save or a star for a save.”

‘‘He didn’t get a game ball,” Beck said, ‘‘but we gave him a rotisserie chicken from Bowen’s [Grocery].”