Hampshire wins second straight regional

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

Hampshire baseball is beginning to make a habit of this.

One year after upsetting Byron for its first-ever regional championship, Hampshire was up to more of the same on Saturday against host and No. 1 seed Stillman Valley in a Class 2A regional championship game.

The third-seeded Whip-Purs proved they were not intimidated by the Cardinals -- who entered the game with a record of 22-4 -- by pulling out a 7-3 win thanks to some dominating pitching and clutch hitting.

"Two in a row, the underdogs," said Hampshire coach Steve Ream. "Sometimes it's beneficial to be the underdog because there's no pressure. And a team with a 22-4 record, that's expected. I think we're opening some eyes."

As was the case last year, Ryan Burke pitched the Whips (16-13) to a regional victory. The sophomore came out firing and coasted through the first five innings, facing only two batters over the minimum, before finally running into trouble in the sixth and seventh.

But by that time, his offense had already staked him to a 7-0 lead. Burke (5-2) struck out five batters and walked only one en route to the complete-game win.

"It's just awesome. Second year in the row and the only two regionals in Hampshire's history," Burke said. "We weren't intimidated at all. We were pumped up before the game and we knew we could come out and get a win."

The Whips' offense was opposed by Cardinals' senior ace Jake Nicholson, who entered Saturday with an 8-1 record.

Hampshire junior Zach Crinigan got the first hit of the game for the Whips in the first inning, a two-out double to the gap in right-center field. Even though he didn't come around to score, his at-bat showed the rest of the offense that it could hit Nicholson.

"I noticed he was going in pairs. Curveballs in pairs and fastballs," Crinigan said. "I told them to go up and swing at that fastball hard and it just opened up there and that pitcher got frustrated."

The Whips took Crinigan's advice and put up five runs in the second inning. Junior Joe Moore started the hit parade with a solo home run to center field. A bases-loaded walk to junior Bo Price made it 2-0 and a Burke fielder's choice made it 3-0. After a two-out walk to Crinigan loaded the bases, cleanup hitter Matt Kuefner came through with a two-run single to left to make it 5-0.

"We just jumped on them early and I couldn't be more proud of them," Ream said.

Crinigan added to his day by sending a 1-2 pitch over the center-field fence for a solo home run, pushing the Whips' lead to 7-0.

The Cardinals got one run in the sixth but left the bases loaded, and plated two in the seventh before Burke got Stillman cleanup hitter Mike Rich to fly out to center.

"He had really good composure and hit his spots when he needed to," said Burke's catcher, junior Tyler Bentley. "The best he's done."

Hampshire advances to the Byron Sectional and will play Milledgeville at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.