Huntingdon advances to conference tournament finals

WILSON, N.C. – The Huntingdon baseball team had a tough start on Saturday but the Hawks are still alive in the USA South Athletic Conference Tournament.

Huntingdon lost to Maryville 9-2 in the winners bracket finals before eliminating LaGrange 6-2 in the losers bracket finals. Huntingdon (22-17) will face Maryville (29-13) in the tournament championship on Sunday.

Maryville, which is unbeaten in the double elimination tournament, needs one win to claim the conference title. Huntingdon needs two wins to capture the conference championship.

The championship game is set for 11 a.m. Central at Fleming Stadium. A Huntingdon win would force an "if" game that would follow.

In Saturday's deciding win over LaGrange (30-13), the Hawks scored three runs in the first three innings and added three more runs in the fourth inning. Huntingdon put together 11 hits and pitchers Matt Gatewood and Mason Throneberry held LaGrange to four hits.

Gatewood (3-0) picked up the win, striking out four, walking one, hitting three batters, scattering three hits and allowing one run in seven innings. Throneberry walked two, allowed one hit and one run in the final two innings.

Anthony Spivey, who was 7-for-8 with two doubles and three runs in Saturday's two games, went 4-for-4 with two runs against LaGrange. Jordan Criswell had an RBI triple in the final game and was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run.

Gunnar Peters was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, Patrick Kucera scored two runs, Alec Raley had an RBI and a run and Throneberry drove in one run.

Criswell drove in Huntingdon's first two runs of the game. A sacrifice bunt by Criswell scored Kucera in the first inning and Criswell's RBI triple in the third inning scored Spivey. Criswell then scored on an RBI single by Peters to make it 3-0.

In the fourth inning, Kucera scored on an RBI single by Raley before Raley scored on an RBI single by Peters. Spivey scored the Hawks' final run on a sacrifice fly by Throneberry to make it 6-0.

LaGrange scored one run in the fifth inning and one run in the eighth, but the Hawks finished off the win.

In the Hawks' first game of the day, Huntingdon trailed 3-2 in the seventh inning before Maryville pulled away.

Huntingdon scored both of its runs in the sixth inning as Spivey scored on a ground out by Cheston Wesson and Criswell scored on sacrifice bunt by Landon Sessions.

Spivey was 3-for-4 in the game and Josh Jackson and Josh Hines were each 2-for-4.

Jared Gonzalez (4-5) took the loss in seven innings.