Austin Hurt drove in the game-winning run with a two-out single in the top of the seventh inning to lead visiting Spalding to an 11-10, come-from-behind victory against Woodward Academy in the first game of their best-of-three Class AAA baseball semifinal series on Monday.
The two teams had averaged a combined 26 runs per game through the first three rounds of the playoffs, so it came as little surprise that their matchup was rough on the pitchers.
Woodward Academy led 5-1 after one inning and 10-6 going to the fifth, but Spalding always seemed to have an answer. Matt Hayes hit two homers and had three RBIs for Spalding, including a solo shot on the fifth pitch of the game and a two-run drive to left in the second inning that cut the lead to 5-4.
But Hayes got a lot of help; the Jaguars had five home runs among their 16 hits. Zach Lerner was 4-for-4, Dylan Griffin was 3-for-4 with a home run, and Casey Moody and Nathan Skinner each homered.
“Our kids have just been resilient all year long,” Spalding coach Mickey Moody said. “We feel like we have a good approach at the plate. We’ve been patient and we try to have quality at-bats. We were down early and then battled back, and then it went back and forth, back and forth. We scratched one late, then got three outs and won the ballgame.”
Spalding pitcher Casey Moody battled through five innings before giving way to Hurt, who pitched two scoreless innings to record the victory. Hurt faced eight batters, allowing a leadoff double to Morgan Bunting in the sixth and hitting Josh Minor in the seventh, and he got Jonathan Pryor to ground out to second to end the game.
Woodward Academy’s Kevin Cosper drove in four runs and had two hits, including a two-run homer in the fourth that gave the War Eagles their 10-6 lead. Andrew Adams and Josh Minor also homered for Woodward Academy, which finished with 10 hits.
Spalding is playing in the semifinals for the first time since 2004, when it lost to eventual champion LaGrange. Woodward Academy, which is appearing in the semifinals for the first time in school history, had its 20-game winning streak broken.
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