Mountain Valley Hawks Take Down Spring Branch Wranglers, 9-3
Mountain Valley Hawks rushed out with a 6 run first inning lead in their first win ever over the Spring Branch Wrangler team, 9-3.
There was a long wait between these first two contests after MV won their first outing two weeks ago over Churchill MS and now will take a 2-0 record into their Saturday outing at Smithson Valley High School with the first pitch commencing at 1:00pm against Canyon MS.
“With this group it is easy in directing a rebound,” Head Coach Raymond Amora said with confidence. “They practiced hard and these kids love to play baseball and that makes playing the game easy…in taking the lead we used our hits and speed and that put pressure on their defense…that helped us beat them by a sound margin.”
That first inning started with a bang as the Hawks took advantage of some shoddy defense and mixed in 3 hits that had a triple off the bat of Brayden Welch scoring the first two runs.
“I had the mindset just to get a base hit,” Welch said. “I was watching the ball and the outfielders to see if I could make it to 3rd base.”
The Hawks had 8 straight players reach base before the carnage came to a stop.
MV added another run in the 2nd frame on a sacrifice fly from Hayden Baker driving in Chase Anderson.
Mountain Valley’s bats went silent for their next 3 innings with a single and walk having the only Hawk damage.
There was some nifty defense in the bottom of that 3rd inning when Centerfielder Welch had an ESPN highlight diving catch. That was a huge out in keeping the Wranglers with just one run after another out coming from a base running mistake by Spring Branch.
“I had a bad jump and I knew I had to make it up,” Welch recalled. “Right before I reached the ball I knew I would have to dive to get the out.”
The 3 Hawk pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts with Hunter Anderson leading the charge with 7 recorded k’s and Ty Sellers (3) and Baker (1)adding to the parade of Wrangler players walking back to their dugout with holes in their bats.
That last at bat for Spring Branch made the Hawks a little nervous after scoring a run and having the bases loaded.
Then Hayden Baker was called up to the mound in trying to finish off this game.
“We were trying to over do it and did not have the right mind-set,” Baker said in response in leaving the door open for their opponent. “I just wanted to throw strikes, usually curve balls, and keep up with my energy.”
Baker was pretty crisp in getting those final two outs without any more damage and a Hawk win.
MVMS had not had any success in baseball contests against this Spring Branch school that has not finished below 2nd place in district play.
Sellers finished the scoring for MV with a solid double that scored those last two runs as Chase Anderson made his trips to the plate scoring 1/3 of Mountain Valley runs.
“We will need to go into our next game with our heads up while staying humble and don’t get down if things don’t go our way,” Welch said in response to how this crew will keep their season unblemished.
Mountain Valley will be back in action on Saturday if the rain holds off long enough for a game against Canyon MS…with another 6 run first inning, then that might not be a problem.
Go Hawks!!
1 2 3 4 5 6 R H E Mountain Valley Hawks 6 1 0 0 0 2 9 8 3 Spring Branch MS 0 0 1 1 0 1 3 5 3 ab r h bi 2b 3b bb so misc Hunter Anderson 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 sb Chase Anderson 3 3 2 0 0 0 1 0 Ty Sellers 3 1 2 2 1 0 0 0 hbp Brayden Welch 3 1 2 2 0 1 0 1 cs hbp Helijah Johnson 2 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 roe sb Hayden Baker 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 sf roe ph Brett Harwell 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Emmett Greiman 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 roe Andrew Miller 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 Travis Parma 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ph Marshall McConnell 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ss Gage Gibbons - - - - - - - - Totals 26 9 8 7 1 1 4 2 Pitching ip h r er bb so misc W L S Hunter Anderson 4.0 3 2 1 1 7 1 0 0 Ty Sellers 1.1 2 1 1 1 3 hp 2 0 0 0 Hayden Baker 0.2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 Totals 6.0 5 3 2 2 11 Pitches-Strikes: Hunter Anderson 76-45 59% Ty Sellers 43-21 49% Hayden Baker 5-4 80% totals 124-70 56%