CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Cabell Midland coach Tracy Brumfield felt his heart drop if for only a split second.
With the Knights on the verge of closing out George Washington in Saturday’s Class AAA title game at GoMart Ballpark, the Patriots had mounted a threat while down to their last at bat. With two runners on and one out, Brumfield elected to remove Jared Nethercutt, who had done all he could to ensure the repeat, and the skipper called on left-hander Aden McCormill.
GW leadoff batter Chuck Kelley was the first batter McCormill faced and he ripped a hard-hit ball up the middle, only for Knights’ shortstop Kenyon Collins to come up with the catch and apply a tag on Hunter Giacomo, who had come off second base. That marked a double play and the end of the matchup, sealing a 3-2 victory for Cabell Midland.
“I saw the line drive and it scared me at first,” Brumfield said. “I saw him catch it and then said, ‘it’s over with now, boys.’”
Collins, bound for Marshall to continue playing baseball, never wavered on the play despite Kelley’s solid contact.
“He took a flinch towards third and I was like, this is it, we won.’ I knew I could get to him and I was aggressive after it,” Collins said.
It was a tough ending for the Patriots (23-14), which finished runner-up for the second time in three seasons.
“That’s everything you ask for. They bring in a reliever and we’ve seen him and know who he is,” GW head coach Mike Davis said. “He throws hard and throws the ball well. Chuck has a really good at bat and smokes it. It’s kind of a low diving line drive. There’s not much the runner can do. He happened to hit it right at them and that’s how baseball goes sometimes.”
GW played from behind nearly throughout as the Knights (27-9) scored once in each of the first two innings.
Landon Nida worked a leadoff walk and after being sacrificed to second, Nida scored with two outs on a Luke Samuel single to right.
Patriots’ starting pitcher Ty Nettles limited the damage by striking out McCormill with two on to end the inning.
GW got even in the second after singles from Eli Dawson, Jon Fala and Alex Wilson loaded the bases and Kelley worked a walk to bring in his team’s first run. With the bases still loaded, Nethercutt induced a ground ball off the bat of West Virginia University signee Bryson Hoff to keep the game knotted at 1.
Midland then wasted no time regaining its lead as Bryce Alfrey belted a one-out double to left and scored on Nida’s double to left.
That marked the end of the pitching outing for Nettles, who was replaced by Eli Smith.
Smith and Nethercutt were the story of the next few innings as both right-handers prevented the opposition from producing a baserunner in the third and fourth frames.
“His off speed stuff made his fastball look faster,” Brumfield said of Nethercutt. “They had 20 hits the other night and 17 runs. They have a great hitting team and Jared threw a heck of a game.”
Nethercutt did so again in the fifth and the Knights generated their lone run off Smith in the home half of that inning.
“The first inning, I was really nervous, but after that, I was on,” Nethercutt said.
Clayton Hettlinger led off the home half of the fifth with an infield single and after stealing second with one out, Hettlinger got to third on an error — the only one of the game between the two squads.
It loomed large when Ray Ray Williams followed with a fly ball to center that was deep enough to plate Hettlinger on a sacrifice fly, leaving the Patriots facing a 3-1 deficit.
“Their guy did a tremendous job and we couldn’t quite get our approaches on point with him for the middle part of the game, but I’m proud of our guys fight,” Davis said. “They fight until the very end and we put ourselves in position to tie that up and do some things. A really hard hit ball that our runner was kind of in between on and it’s tough to end it on that one.”
Instead of the Patriots going away quietly, Abe Fenwick ripped a leadoff triple to the right field corner to start the sixth, and he scored moments later on Smith’s sacrifice fly to center.
Nethercutt struck out the next two batters to end the Patriots’ half of the sixth, and after Smith worked around Samuel’s leadoff single in the home half of that inning, the Patriots came to bat in the seventh trailing by one.
Fala’s fly ball marked the first out of the inning, but Giacomo drew a walk while pinch-hitting, and Wilson followed with a sharp single that chased Nethercutt.
“It was between Aden McCormill and [sophomore] Owen Maynard to throw. We wanted a senior to finish it,” Brumfield said. “Thank God Kenyon Collins was in the right spot. He makes the play, doubles it up and game over with.”
Both teams finished with six hits. Wilson and Samuel led their respective squads with two apiece.
Nettles took the loss after allowing two runs on four hits over 1 2/3 innings. He recorded all but one of his outs via strikeout and issued one walk.
Smith had eight strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings, while allowing one run on two hits in relief.
Nethercutt struck out four and walked two over his strong 6 1/3 innings of work.
“Everything was working. The dude was throwing everything in the strike zone and they really didn’t touch it much,” Collins said. “They had a few barrels, and it happens, but they couldn’t hit him too hard. He threw really well.”
Class AAA all-tournament team
Chuck Kelley, George Washington
Corbin Dixon, George Washington
Bryson Hoff, George Washington
Kenyon Collins, Cabell Midland
Luke Samuel, Cabell Midland
Landon Nida, Cabell Midland
Ray Ray Williams, Cabell Midland
Abe Fenwick, George Washington
Eli Smith, George Washington
Jared Nethercutt, Cabell Midland