Trojan baseball begins season
Published 3:14 pm Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Submitted
The Hamilton County High School (HCHS) Trojan baseball team began the 2008 season by hosting the Fred Mickler Preseason Classic in Jasper on Tuesday, Feb. 5, and Thursday, Feb. 7. Hamilton County welcomed Aucilla Christian, Melody Christian and Lafayette High School to the Fred Mickler Field to participate in the tournament.
The tournament began with Melody Christian posting a 17-7 win in 5 innings over Aucilla Christian on Tuesday afternoon. The Trojans took the field in the nightcap and defeated Lafayette High 11-10 in 9 innings.
Early in the game, the Hornets took advantage of some defensive miscues by the Trojan defense and held a 7-1 lead after 4 innings. The Trojans fought back and closed the gap to 7-6 in the 5th inning only to allow Lafayette to increase their lead to 10-6 in the 6th inning. In the bottom of the 7th inning, the Trojans fought back and tied the game 10-10. The teams swapped scoreless at-bats in the 8th inning and junior Tyler Morgan held the Hornets scoreless in the top of the 9th inning. Morgan then led off the bottom of the 9th inning with a double. Josh McCoy, pinch running for Morgan, came around to score the winning run when catcher Joel Zamora reached first base on an error.
Senior Craig Newsome and junior Adam Zamora each pitched 4 innings for the Trojans and Morgan pitched the scoreless 9th. Newsome and Zamora each finished with 7 strikeouts while only walking 1 each. Freshman Joel Zamora had 2 RBIs and senior Hector Zamora scored 3 runs for the Trojans.
On Thursday, Lafayette defeated Aucilla Christian 24-9 to begin the action and HCHS came from behind again to defeat Melody Christian 3-2 to close out the tournament.
Thursday night’s game between HCHS and Melody Christian turned out to be a pitcher’s duel. Senior Hector Zamora started on the mound for the Trojans and pitched 5 strong innings before being relieved by freshman Eric Zamora, who picked up the win. Morgan led the Trojans at the plate, going 2 for 3 with an RBI. Chris Aldridge, pinch running for Morgan, scored the winning run for HCHS when junior Rafael Balleza reached first base on an error in the bottom of the 7th inning.
HCHS head coach Ryan Mitchell was proud of his team after the preseason. “Our kids showed a lot of heart in coming from behind both nights to win. It would have been very easy for them to give up, but they decided to fight back and we came out on top. We faced a very good pitcher in John Gay from Melody Christian on Thursday night. He pitched an outstanding game. Although we didn’t hit the ball well, we were able to find ways to win. Our senior leaders did an excellent job of making sure that we continued to play hard despite falling behind. I really appreciate our fans showing up to support the players. We had great crowds for both nights of the tournament. Hopefully, we can continue to play well and keep winning ball games.”
The Trojans traveled to Suwannee High School on Tuesday, Feb. 12, to begin the regular season. They will face Aucilla Christian at home on Friday, Feb. 15, at 5 p.m.
