HiToms season ends in Forest City
from Danile Frey with HiTOms baseball
Forest City, N.C.– The High Point Thomasville HiToms (0-1) scored first but lost the lead and left the few runners they had on base in a 3-2 loss at the Forest City Owls (1-0) in the Coastal Plain League West Division semi-final. A memorable season ends in the opening round of the playoffs for the HiToms who never gave up all season long.
“We fought all year and we fought this game,” HiToms head coach Brian Rountree said. “It came down to who was going to deliver with runners in scoring position and the Owls were able to do that tonight once and we had a few opportunities.”
The HiToms starting pitcher Austin Gardner (0-1) danced out of bases loaded jam in the bottom of the first inning.
A little later in the top of the third, David Fry put the HiToms on the board first with a two-run homer over the 25-foot wall in left field.
The Owls answered in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single through the left side of the infield by Mason Fox.
Gardner ran into trouble with runners at the corners in the bottom of the sixth when Reid Clements was summoned from the bullpen but two pitches got away from the catcher Daniel Milwee allowing the tying and go-ahead run to cross the plate. On the mound for Forest City, Alex Evans (1-0) was dealing and set down 10 straight batters from the end of the third on.
The HiToms best chance to put more runs on the board came in the top of the eighth with two runners in scoring position and one but but Kaleb McCurry rallied to strike out the next two HiToms he faced.
In two solid inning of relief, Logan Welch kept HPT in it but Chaz Miller picked up his first postseason save as the HiToms had the tying run on to seal a 3-2 Owls playoff victory. Forest City outhit the HiToms 9-4 and both teams played a clean game in the field.
The Owls advance to the CPL West Division Championship game to take on the Savannah Bananas at Grayson Stadium tomorrow night.
“They’re good teammates to one another,” head coach Brian Rountree said. “As a coach you think to yourself that maybe we are doing some things right. I know they were disappointed at the end but that happens in the game of baseball.”