The Hurley Tigers used a dramatic six-run seventh inning to defeat the Lockwood Tigers, 6-4, in the first round of the state playoffs on Tuesday afternoon. The game was held in Forsyth due to wet field conditions in both Hurley and Lockwood. The game’s first inning was played in Lockwood on Monday night but the rain quickly washed out that game. When the game rebooted in Forsyth, both starting pitchers were throwing strikes. Hurley did get runners on base but could not get the clutch hit against Lockwood’s starting pitcher, Noah Standhardt.
“Their pitcher, give him all the credit in the world, he had a good breaking ball that kept us off balance,” said Hurley coach Page Jones. “We were swinging at his pitches the whole game. There early, we had a couple of runners on and we couldn’t get them in, but it all boils down to, we took too many strikes right down the middle and we couldn’t get a clutch hit with runners on base.”
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Lockwood managed to get to Hurley’s starting pitcher, Justice Jones, in the fourth inning. The first three batters reached base with no outs. With one out, Lockwood’s Ben Schnelle hit a bases-clearing triple, giving his team the 3-0 lead. Hurley’s Isaac Carlson came in in relief to finish the game, but not before Schnelle scored on a Hurley error.
The score stayed the same until the top of the seventh when, trailing 4-0, Hurley made a comeback for the ages. Hurley’s first two batters reached base. Chase Simpson drew a walk to load the bases and the Hurley fans still had hope. A Lockwood error scored two runs and then Carlson drove in two runs tying the game at 4-4. Hit batsmen would load the bases again for Hurley. Then some shoddy infield play and a couple of wild pitches allowed Hurley to score two more runs, giving them a 6-4 lead. Hurley would send ten guys to the plate in the seventh inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, with Carlson on the mound for Hurley, Lockwood tried to make a comeback of their own. Lockwood drew a lead-off walk, putting the tying run at the plate. Coach Jones talked to his pitcher, telling him to “calm down.” Carlson struck out the next three batters to end the game.
“I told Carlson that we’ve been in a lot bigger situations than this,” said Coach Jones. “He’s played big-time travel ball, he’s played in the final four last year… he struck out the side after that. I told him ‘you got this, there ain’t no problem.’ He was wild but then he found it after he threw that first strike. Then he locked it in.”
“Whenever that happened, Coach just told me to calm down, you can do this, and that he believed in me,” said Carlson. “That’s a big confidence boost, to have your coach believe in you like that, believe you can do it. Whenever I struck out those next three, I knew my pitching was on point.”
This was Lockwood’s first district baseball title since 1994 and the Tigers were looking to continue their winning ways, something they had not done in the last 20 years. With the victory just three outs away, they saw their post-season dream slip away.
“That was tough, very tough,” said Lockwood coach Larry Stuart. “I’m just proud of them, real proud of them. This is gonna hurt, but we’re still proud of them. Tonight the ball didn’t bounce our way and we were just too loose in that last inning. I’m real proud of these boys, it was a good season.”
Hurley, who made the post-season last year for the first time in many years, used their resiliency and no-quit attitude to come back on Lockwood.
“Last night we weren’t really ready to play, I didn’t think,” said Coach Jones. “We thought we could walk through Lockwood and I told them that wasn’t the way it works. Once we started playing tonight, Lockwood made every play and they took it to us. In the last inning, we got good quality at-bats. Our goal is to take seven or eight pitches each at-bat, which I felt like we did the first two or three innings. We had a lot of guys get to the eight pitch count but we didn’t do a whole lot with them. It may have paid off toward that last inning. We scored six runs in that last inning, which is hard to believe.”
Hurley will travel to New Covenant Academy to play in the state quarterfinals on Wednesday afternoon.
“We’ve played them twice this year—they beat us 7-0 and we played really bad, and they beat us 7-0 and we played really well,” said Coach Jones. “We played them for the conference championship. We know each other.”
Hurley 6 Lockwood 4
Hurley 000 000 6 — 6
Lockwood 000 400 0 — 4
