By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Leave it to a couple of Watauga pitchers to help themselves out in the slugging department, in two different games on March 4 at West Wilkes, for the Classic at the Creek baseball tournament.
In an oddity of scheduling, the winner of the tournament’s Game 1 between St. Stephens and Watauga was rewarded with having to play a second, Game 2, immediately afterwards against tournament host, West Wilkes. The Blackhawks apparently gave themselves a bye into the second round, because it was reported that the winner of Game 2 on March 4 advances to the championship game on Thursday, March7.
The Pioneers were undeterred by the challenge. In Game 1, sophomore Everett Gryder was on the mound for Watauga and looked to be engaged in an old fashioned pitcher’s duel with the score tied at 0-0 at the end of the third inning. But in the top of the 4th, Pioneer first baseman JT Cook ran out a pop up that was mishandled by the Saints’ third baseman. Sophomore centerfielder Jake Blanton followed with a line-drive single to left. With David Pastusic at the plate, Cook and Blanton both advanced on a wild pitch before Pastusic rapped a line drive out to the St. Stephens third baseman. With one out and runners on second and third, Jake Henderson drew a walk that loaded the bases.
And that’s where the real drama begins. Gryder came to the plate and didn’t waste any time securing a spot in the record books as the winning pitcher of this game. On the second pitched ball, he drilled a moonshot over the left field fence for a grand slam home run and a 4-0 Watauga lead.
But the Pioneers weren’t done in the power department against the Saints. They slugged three more home runs — back to back dingers by Cook and another by Pastusic — plus a couple of doubles off the bats of catcher Cooper Critcher and shortstop Maddox Greene. And just to round out the team performance with speed on basepaths, Evan Burroughs stole a pair of bases, while Jake Henderson swiped another.
TOP PERFORMERS IN GAME 1
- Everett Gryder: Winning pitcher, grand slam HR, 1-3, 4 RBIs
- J T Cook: 2-4, 3 runs scored, 4 RBIs, 2 HRs
- David Pastusic: 1-4, 1 run scored, 1 RBI
- Evan Burroughs: 1-2, 1 run scored, 2 BB, 2 SB
- Maddox Greene: 2-3, 1 run scored, 2 RBIs, 1 BB, 2B
- Cooper Critcher: 1-1, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, 2B, BB
GAME 2
Without a lot of depth in their pitching staff, including a couple of early season sore arms, the Pioneers scrambled for help on the mound for Game 2. By the end of the second inning, the Blackhawks sported a 6-1 lead and at the end of the third frame, Watauga had only closed the gap a little bit, 6-2, with Maddox Greene and J T Cook advancing home on wild pitches.
In the top half of the 4th, Dillon Zaragoza ripped a double to left field, then later benefited from two wild pitches, advancing to third base, then taking home two pitches later. That tightened the deficit, but the Pioneers were still looking at the wrong end of a 6-3 score.
The Blackhawks’ Harrison Holbrook launched his second home run of the game in the bottom of the 4th, a 2-run dinger that expanded the West Wilkes lead to 8-3.
But in the top half of the 5th inning, David Pastusic rapped a bases load single that plated both Cook and Cooper Critcher, then Jake Blanton scored on a bases loaded walk to Jameson Hodges. That was all the Watauga offense for the inning but they found themselves back within reach, down 8-6.
With Zaragoza now on the mound, the sophomore was able to wiggle out of the bottom of the 5th inning without allowing a run, surviving a Watauga fielding error and walking a batter that put a West Wilkes runner in scoring position to no avail.
The top of the 6th inning proved to be the Blackhawks’ undoing as the Pioneers became “doubles crazy” — and Zaragoza rapped the double down the left field line that put Watauga tenuously in the lead, 9-8. Ahead of him, Cook and Blanton had hit consecutive doubles to tighten the score to 8-7 and Jake Henderson had scored an RBI when he hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Blanton, to tie the game at 8-8.
Now with a 9-8 lead and Zaragoza poised to become the winning pitcher of record, Watauga inserted the fourth Pioneer pitcher of the night, Evan Burroughs. The young sophomore gave up a walk and a sacrifice bunt that moved a Blackhawk runner into scoring position in second, but the next batter grounded out to Maddox Greene at shortstop for the final out of the inning.
The top of the 7th inning saw Burroughs helping the cause, offensively, with a line drive single to left to lead off, then stealing second base. Greene followed with a long fly ball to the right fielder but the fleet Burroughs was able to tag up and advance to third with just one out. That proved timely because the Pioneers were able to score and insurance run with Critcher lofting yet another sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Burroughs.
Burroughs made short work of the Blackhawks in their last at-bats, fanning three consecutive batters to secure the win for the Pioneers.
Top Performers for Watauga against West Wilkes
- Dillon Zaragoza: winning pitcher, 2 doubles
- Evan Burroughs: save, 1-5, 1 run scored, stolen base
- J T Cook: 1-3, 3 runs scored, 2 BB, 2B
- Jake Blanton: 1-1, 2 runs scored, 1 RBI, 2 BB
- David Pastusic: 2-4, 1 run scored, 2 RBIs, 2 stolen bases
The Pioneers are now scheduled to play Mt. Airy in the tournament championship game on March 7, 4:30 p.m., on the West Wilkes field.
