Published: May 09, 2008 01:29 am            

Close to perfect, Hornets roll 17-0

Smith tosses no-hitter, Ross homers in game one of area series

HOUSTON — Huntsville sophomore Caleb Smith said he knew after the first pitch he threw Thursday night that he was on top of his game.

Not only was he on top, but he was lights out. The left-hander combined with junior Cole Sullivan to toss a no-hitter and the Hornets rolled to a 17-0 victory in five innings over Houston Scarborough in game one of a best-of-three, area-round series at Ashmore Field in Houston.

Smith pitched the first four innings, allowing only one base runner to improve his postseason record to 2-0. He was in complete command of his fastball, whiffing it by the Spartans to finish with nine strikeouts.

“The first pitch of the game, I knew I was going to be able to hit my spots,” Smith said. “It also made it a lot easier that we put a lot of runs on the board. We hit the ball extremely well tonight.”

Boy, did the Hornets ever. Huntsville (20-11) scored 17 runs off 10 hits and jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the second inning that pretty much sealed it.

With one out, junior James Davidson drew a walk and sophomore Shaquille Ross hit a sky-high fly ball to left field that somehow found away to clear the fence for a two-run home run to make it 2-0.

Spartans ace Blake Roberts then struggled with control issues and walked designated hitter Adam Ayala and senior Justin Davis sandwiched around a hit by junior Joe White. Senior Cody Gougler then ripped a two-run single to right, and Davis made it 5-0 when he scored on a failed pickoff attempt at third.

The Hornets struggled hitting off-speed pitches in a bi-district sweep last weekend against Austin Travis, but apparently Scarborough (13-10) didn’t do its homework, throwing a steady diet of fastballs Thursday night.

Now Huntsville heads back to Kate Barr Ross Park on Saturday with a 1-0 advantage and a chance to wrap up the series at home.

“Anytime you put the ball in play and hit it hard, you got a chance,” said Ross, who went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs. “That’s what we did quite often this game. They played right into our hands by throwing us fastballs, and they couldn’t catch up to Caleb.”

Roberts settled down in the third, only allowing one runner to reach base when Ross ripped an opposite-field double to right. But the wheels fell off the wagon in the fourth after Smith struck out the side in the bottom half of the third.

Junior Jake Gregory, Davis and Gougler all reached on errors to start the frame, then Roberts issued three straight walks to catcher Ethan Woods, first baseman Gustavo Arana and Davidson to push the Hornets’ lead to 8-0.

The Spartans finally brought in reliever Jimmy Angelo, but he didn’t fare much better. He walked Ayala with one out to bring in another run before surrendering a two-run single to White. Davis made it 12-0 with another hit and Woods drove in a pair of runs with a single before Scarborough finally got out of the inning.

Huntsville added three more runs in the fifth thanks to singles by Tyler Benson and Marcus Williams, a hit-batsman and a fielder’s choice by Grant Sprott.

It was that kind of night for the Hornets, when everything went right. They benefited from five Spartan errors, and all but three of the 14 players who saw action got on base.

“We finally got more than 10 runs. It’s been a while and I like that,” Benson said. “We needed to hit the ball like that and now we have a chance to win it at home.”

Hornets head coach Shelby Shaw elected to go with Sullivan in the bottom of the fifth to close things out. The left-hander made quick work of the three batters he faced, getting the first to ground out then picking up back-to-back strikeouts to nail down the no-hitter.

Thanks to the performance of Smith and Sullivan, Huntsville can turn to Davis, a 10-game winner this season, in game two at 2 p.m. Saturday.

“Caleb was in a lot better rhythm today, and we were able to throw more than fastballs,” Shaw said. “He got us going and the offense did the rest. I wanted to get Sully some work because he hasn’t thrown in a while, and he is one of the guys we are going to need the further we go. That’s one of the reasons I brought him in even though Caleb was throwing a no-hitter.”

        

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