Trinity Christian Beats Hough in NHSI-Opening Pitching Duel

CARY, N.C.—The National High School Invitational opened with a battle of the arms on Wednesday morning in the first matchup of the tournament, with Trinity Christian (Jacksonville, Fla.) beating the Hough Huskies (Charlotte, N.C.) 2-1 in walkoff fashion with one out in the bottom of the seventh.

Conquerors righthander A.J. Labas struck out 13 and threw 72 of his 92 pitches for strikes, with a fastball up to 92, using his changeup as a successful out pitch to both righties and lefties. He allowed one unearned run on six hits, walking none.

“We knew he was going to be good,” Hough head coach Jimmy Cochran said. “We wanted to try and be aggressive on the fastball early. That’s what our plan was coming in and obviously we did that there in the first, but when you’ve got two other plus pitches that work for you, you know at some point you’ve got to hit those too . . . He did a tremendous job to our lefthanders, commanding his changeup and throwing that to those guys.”

Labas duelled Huskies lefthander Nicholas Swiney, a North Carolina State signee, who kept his team in the game through three errors. Swiney couldn’t get past the two miscues that drove in runs for Trinity Christian, including the final play that saw a leadoff walk come around after a sacrifice bunt and an infield error to end the contest. Swiney allowed two unearned runs on just two hits with two walks and four strikeouts.

“Swiney did amazing,” Conquerors head coach Gil Morales said. “That lefty, he was really good today . . . He had a lot of quick innings; we had a lot of innings where two outs were quick, and the biggest adjustment was to take one side of the plate away and force him to either go away or come in, do something.”

Added Cochran: “He’s not one of those guys who just gets out there and throws, he’s got three pitches and a good idea of how to use them. And we trust him enough when he’s throwing, we let him call his own game and he does a good job of that. I hate it for him today that we weren’t able to support him a little bit better defensively and offensively.”

Huskies DH Seth McAulay and shortstop Carter Williams led the offensive charge with two hits apiece in the game, Williams notching the only RBI of the contest, driving McAulay in with a squeeze bunt in the fourth for an early lead.

Trinity Christian center fielder Chad Ragland scored the Conquerors’ first run in the sixth, coming in on an error after being hit by a pitch and stealing second and third. Pinch-runner Dawson Fietsam scored the winning run on a ball put in play by third baseman Connor Aldrich.