Published: May 17, 2008 01:14 am            

Hornets go down fighting, 9-6

Knights turn out lights on Huntsville by scoring four runs in sixth inning

WACO — When the Hornets walked off the field at Baylor Ballpark on Friday afternoon following a 9-6 Region III quarterfinal setback to Austin McCallum, the Huntsville fans gave the team a standing ovation.

Even though the loss meant the Hornets’ postseason run was over, it was still a solid effort. A night after dropping the opener of a best-of-three series 20-2, the boys in green left it all on the field Friday.

Huntsville (21-13) battled and battled, but McCallum (24-7-2) caught the breaks and got a huge three-run homer from center fielder Everett Williams in the bottom of the sixth to advance to the regional semifinals with the victory.

“What more can you ask from these guys?” Hornets head coach Shelby Shaw asked. “We made some mistakes, but you can’t get upset when they are getting after it, trying to make a play. I’m proud of our guys for coming out here with a passion. We expected to win, and if we suited up right now, we would expect to win.

“That is how we go about it. We just gave them too many at-bats.”

With the Hornets up 6-5 heading into the sixth, it looked like there was going to be a third game later Friday, but McCallum was able to get around to the meat of its lineup, mainly Williams.

An RBI single by Jake Goss tied the game at 6 and brought the Knights’ junior slugger to the plate with two runners on board. Willams blasted a monster home run just left of the high wall in center field for the game-winning runs.

Williams was a thorn in Huntsville’s side in both games of the series. He went a combined 7-for-8 with two home runs, a triple, two doubles, a single and eight RBIs.

“I thought they were going to walk me. I didn’t think they would pitch to me,” Williams said. “We knew they were going to come out fighting, and we kept fighting because we didn’t want to play a third game. It felt good to come through for my team.”

The Hornets led most of the way, going up 1-0 with a run in the first on a single by Cody Gougler that scored Jake Gregory, who led off with an infield hit.

After senior Justin Davis kept McCallum off the scoreboard in the bottom of the frame, Huntsville pushed the lead to 4-0. Right fielder James Davidson singled to get things going, and third baseman Shaquille Ross reached on an error.

Junior Adam Ayala loaded the bases when he ripped the ball to third and the defender couldn’t get to the bag quick enough to make a play. Marcus Williams then drew a walk to force in a run. Ross scored on a fielder’s choice by Gregory and Davis knocked in the final run with a sacrifice fly to right.

But the Knights tied the game in the third when the usually reliable Hornets’ defense committed three errors. McCallum scored on a wild pitch, a dropped ball in right and a single by designated hitter Sam Richter. Another run scored on a Huntsville throwing error.

“These guys have been here for me all year and that’s how we have come this far,” Davis said. “(McCallum) got some breaks today that probably shouldn’t have happened, but we still hung in there. We showed up today. It just didn’t happen for us.”

Like they have all year, the Hornets bounced back from a tough inning to take the lead in the fifth. Williams and Gregory hit back-to-back one-out singles. Williams raced in to score on a groundout to short by Davis to make it 5-4.

Huntsville added another run in the sixth. Ross reached on a fielder’s choice and moved to second when Ayala was safe at first on an error by the third baseman. Williams then laced a single into left, and Ross eluded the tag at home to score from second.

But the Knights had a little magic left and were able to squeak out the victory.

“A lot of teams that lost 20-2 on the first night would have laid down, but we came here to win today and dang near had it,” said Gougler, who finished his Hornet career with a 3-for-3 day at the plate. “With three seniors and some guys moving up to varsity this year, we didn’t know what to expect. But I couldn’t be more proud of my two best friends in the world (Davis and senior Ethan Woods) and the guys who stepped up that had never been on varsity before.”

        

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