Everret Hall isn’t quite used to seeing the second inning on the mound.
His usual time to shine is in the later innings.
But when Hall’s number was called due to an injury to pitcher JJ Bagby, the Conner junior delivered. Hall pitched 4.1 innings of relief in the Cougars 9-5 victory over Newport Central Catholic in Monday’s 9th Region baseball tournament quarterfinals at Thomas More Stadium in Florence.
Bagby told his teammates, including Hall he heard a “pop”. With two outs and two men on in the second inning and a 3-1 advantage, Conner turned to Hall, the junior who had made a team-high 12 appearances.
“I knew I had to come in and just throw strikes,” Hall said. “Obviously it’s a tough situation not being able to warm up or anything. So you just kind of do what you can and throw strikes and attack them.”
Hall then proceeded to retire the first eight NewCath batters he faced. By the time Eddie Bivens drew a one-out walk in the top of the fifth, the Cougars had extended their lead to 7-1.
“Everret is a guy who is generally a closer. Came in cold and stepped up big time for us,” Cougars coach Mike Hart said. “That was huge for him and the team.”
Despite the 3-1 advantage, Conner’s at bats through three innings were maybe a little too aggressive. Seven of their first nine outs came via flyout.
“We were patient early and then started to get a little impatient,” Hart said. “They changed the looks on us, brought guys in that threw a lot of breaking ball stuff. You’re standing up there and see a 65 mile an hour breaking ball and eyes get real big. Sometimes things go out the window and thought we did a good job making adjustments when we needed to.”
Conner settled in with a four-run fourth, Brady Bushman with an RBI single, Max Brunkel an RBI double as part of the scoring barrage.
NewCath finally got to Hall in the fifth, who walked a couple of batters and Chris Meyer made him pay with a two-run single to make it 7-3. It was somewhat uncharted territory for Hall.
“I just left it over the middle too much and got a little bit off with the control,” Hall said. “That came with being a little tired later in the game, haven’t gone very deep into games. I’m used to just one or two innings.”
The Cougars added two back in the sixth on Will Higgins RBI single and Drake Brittingham’s RBI groundout.
NewCath made it interesting in the final frame. Trailing 9-3, they loaded the bases with one out thanks to a walk, hit by pitch and error. Grayson Wagner recorded a strikeout for the second out, but Wyatt Fausz’s two-run double put the NewCath tying run on deck.
Brady Bushman got the ball for the final out, striking out Jonathan Meyer to end the game.
The victory gets Conner into Wednesday’s semifinals with Beechwood. NewCath’s season ends at 16-16 with six seniors on the roster.
On top of Hall’s performance on the mound, Conner was led at the plate by Bushman with two hits and an RBI. Brunkel, Higgins, Riley Abousaleh and Brittingham added RBI. Conner’s patience proved itself with eight walks drawn, Case Testerman with four of them.
CONNER 9, NEWPORT CENTRAL CATHOLIC 5
NEWCATH — 100-020-2 — 5-5-0
CONNER — 300-400-x — 9-7-3
2B — (NCC) Fausz (C) Wagner, Brunkel
3B — (C) Webster
RBI — (NC) C. Meyer 2, Fausz 2 (C) Bushman, Brunkel, Abousaleh, Higgins, Brittingham
WP — Hall. LP — Brooks.
Records: Newport Central Catholic 16-16, Conner 19-15