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By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Aurora, Mo. — Aurora managed only four hits Thursday night in its Class 4 quarterfinal matchup with Helias Catholic.
The Houn’ Dawgs only needed one.
Gage Singer’s second-inning solo shot over the left-center wall turned out to be a game-winner, as Aurora downed the Crusaders 1-0 to reach its third-straight final four. In each of the previous appearances, the Houn’s have defeated Helias Catholic in the quarterfinal round.
Wyatt Sparks turned in another stellar performance on the mound, throwing a complete-game, one-hit shutout.
Aurora head coach James Hoffman praised his senior ace for stepping up to the challenge, once again.
“[Sparks] has done stuff like that all year long; he’s been locked in for the last three weeks,” Hoffman said. “He located every single pitch today — I can imagine his strike percentage was around 80 percent — and you’d think a guy throwing around 80 percent would have more than one hit off of him, but he just outcompeted, out-located and outpitched the hitters.”
While Sparks was locked in on the mound, he wasn’t alone,.
Catholic’s Zach Davidson and his assortment of breaking balls didn’t make things easy for Aurora at the plate, either.
The lefty kept the Houn’s off-balance for most of the game; however, the second-inning mistake to Singer proved costly.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
“[Davidson] gave me a first-pitch curve,” Singer said. “I don’t really remember after that. I just got a good pitch to hit, took advantage of it and put a good swing on it. I was just looking for a good pitch to hit.”
Hoffman knew Davidson’s movement would present a challenge and urged his team to wait on fastballs.
“We hunt fastballs,” Hoffman said. “They weren’t picking the curveball up; [Davidson] was throwing it about 55 feet, and we still couldn’t lay off of it. No high school kid can really hit a curveball very well, so that’s what we looked to do.”
In the sixth inning, Davidson ran up to the 105-pitch limit and was relieved by Kaleb Haley.
Haley retired all four batters he faced.
For Aurora, Sparks went the distance on 84 pitches. He finished the game with seven strikeouts, one hit and one walk.
Sparks also received plenty of help from his defense, including a full-extension dive from outfielder Austin Erickson to close out the sixth inning.
“I got a decent jump on it,” Erickson said. “About halfway to it, I saw that it was tailing a little bit and thought if I pulled up, it would probably skip past me. Wyatt was pitching a heck of a game, so I couldn’t have that happen.”
While Hoffman was thrilled to see the right-fielder make a difficult grab, the play wasn’t exactly easy to watch as it developed.
“I can honestly tell you I wasn’t excited while he was in the air,” Hoffman said. “That’s gut-wrenching, because a play like that, that ball gets by him and it changes the perception of the game and, possibly, the outcome. We definitely don’t teach them to dive down the line in that situation, but I guess he had a good beat on it, laid out and made a great catch.”
Aurora (29-1) now prepares for its third-straight appearance in the Class 4 final four. The Houn’ Dawgs will play Boonville (24-1) on Friday, June 1 in O’Fallon, Mo. Excelsior Springs (20-9) and St. Mary’s (17-10) will match up in the other semifinal that same day.
Class 3 Quarterfinal: Aurora – 1, Helias Catholic – 0
Helias 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 — 1
Aurora 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0
Hits: Aurora – 4, Helias – 1
Errors: Aurora – 0, Helias – 0
LOB: Aurora – 5, Helias – 2
Helias Catholic Pitching
Zach Davidson (5.67 IP, 12K, 4H, 2BB)
Kaleb Haley (1.33 IP, 0K, 0H, 0BB)
Aurora Pitching
Wyatt Sparks (7.00 IP, 7K, 1H, 1BB)
Time of game: 1:27
