Published: 12:22 AM, Fri Apr 23, 2010
Huffman helps Tigers hold on to share of first
By Earl Vaughan Jr.
Scholastic sports editor
South View and Pine Forest were looking in decidedly different directions after their Mid-South Conference baseball matchup Thursday.
The host Trojans were hoping for a hot streak as they shifted their focus to the postseason conference tournament.
South View was looking for some outside help as it continued to battle Terry Sanford for the regular season title.
The visiting Tigers did their part to hold on to their share of first, getting a one-hitter from pitcher Brandon Huffman and using some timely hits for a 6-3 win over Pine Forest.
The Trojans slipped to 10-8 overall but dropped two back of Terry Sanford and South View in the loss column with a 7-4 league record.
South View is 17-3 overall and 8-2 in the league. The Tigers must win the rest of their games and hope for Terry Sanford to suffer at least one conference defeat to break the tie between the teams. If they end the regular season tied, all the playoff rewards go to Terry Sanford because the Bulldogs beat South View twice in regular-season play.
Huffman survived one bad inning when he gave up his lone hit and the Tigers committed two errors that allowed Pine Forest to score all three of its runs.
"As always, he pounds the zone with strikes,'' South View coach Scott Ellis said. "He worked on his off-speed pitches more this week. He was able to get over his slider and used his cutter a little tonight, too. It caught them off guard a little.''
Huffman finished with 11 strikeouts. He hit one batter and walked two.
Catcher C.J. Tobin, who had two hits and drove in two runs for the Tigers, thinks the team is peaking at the right time.
"This is the best ball in a couple of years,'' he said. "Guys just stepped up. At the beginning of the year we lost a couple of people, but we had a lot of young guys step up and hit the ball. That kind of surprised us.''
The Tigers got another boost Thursday with the return of first baseman Lou Adams to the lineup. Adams had suffered a broken hand and was thought to be lost for the season, but came back to start and get a double in his first at-bat.
"That kind of psyched us up,'' Tobin said. "He kind of started our bats tonight. We're ecstatic he's coming back.''
Errors hurt Pine Forest as it made four for the game.
"We didn't field it well,'' Pine Forest coach Tom Willoughby said. "When we scored three runs in the fourth, we didn't come back defensively with the momentum. We had a leadoff walk, an error and we kind of lost it after that.''
Scholastic sports editor Earl Vaughan Jr. can be reached at vaughane@fayobserver.com or 486-3519.