NEW HOPE — It was a golden opportunity for New Hope to tie or even win the game in the seventh: two runners on, including one at second.
A base hit would have easily tied things up, but a ball in the gap would have turned Friday night’s game on its head, but Caledonia reliever Conner Black stood tall on the mound.
Needing just one more out to seal a 4-3 win, Black got Drew Hudgins to pop out to the second baseman to do just that.
Things nearly got out of hand, but behind a masterful pitching performance from freshman Reid Garrett, the Cavaliers flipped Tuesday’s 4-3 loss at home for a 4-3 road win Friday.
“We came into it knowing that this atmosphere, this is a freshman going up against a really good club,” Caledonia head coach Brad Hamilton said. “We just wanted two innings.
“For him to come and put on that kind of performance only makes us a better club moving forward.”
Both games were almost identical. On Tuesday, New Hope took its starter, Austin Minichino, out after 5 1/3 great innings of work.
The same happened on Friday as Caledonia (4-3) took Garrett out with one out in the sixth after the best start of his career to date.
To that point, working around errors, wild pitches/passed balls and some walks, Garrett was throwing a no-hitter. His stuff was fooling the New Hope offense, and the Trojans (4-2) couldn’t find a way to stop him.
“I had to just do the best I could and stay focused on the mound and not let them get in my head,” Garrett said. “I just stayed positive and threw strikes.”
It was only after Garrett departed did the Trojans record their first hit, quite literally the first batter against new pitcher Brent Eaton.
New Hope kept itself in the game through capitalizing on pitching and fielding mistakes, scoring two in the fifth off two walks, two hit batters and a number of passed balls.
“I felt we were very fortunate to be in the game as poorly as we played,” New Hope head coach Lee Boyd said. “I give our kids credit for fighting, as poorly as we played, to be in the game at the end.”
Like the tough environment that New Hope faced on Tuesday in Caledonia, the same happened with the Cavaliers heading on the road.
The fervor and passion of the local rivalry caused some tempers to flare early, but things calmed to a simmer as the baseball did the talking.
All told, New Hope committed three errors and left at least 10 runners on base in the loss, a very uncharacteristic effort on the field that is likely to correct itself moving forward.
For Caledonia, it was the signature early-season win it needed with spring break coming up and district baseball in the distance.
“A lot of these kids weren’t even on the team the last time we beat New Hope,” Hamilton said. “This is a big thing for them, and hopefully, the confidence they’ll get will propel us in division play next week.”
Caledonia looks to continue its success over the weekend, hosting Choctaw County at 2 p.m. Saturday while New Hope travels to play East Webster at 11 a.m. Saturday.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 29 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
