BASEBALL: Skyline 1 James Wood 0

By Jerry Holsworth

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

WINCHESTER -- Skyline's Joe Bass was superb on the mound, and a home run by Ty Helmick provided the only offense the Hawks needed to upend James Wood 1-0 on Monday in Northwestern District baseball action.

The victory puts Skyline (6-6, 2-0 Northwestern) at the top of the district with wins over Sherando and James Wood. For James Wood, the loss was a disappointing setback despite good pitching by starter Addison Barber, reliever Garrett Cunningham and a solid defensive play by center fielder Tyler Murphy.

"We're just taking it one game at a time," Hawks coach Ben Taylor said. "We've still got a lot of games to play yet."

After a solid first inning by both starting pitchers, Helmick led off the second inning for Skyline and hammered a shot over the left-field fence for the only run of the game. "I was actually just trying to hit the ball up the middle, but their pitcher left the ball up a little bit," Helmick said. "I got under it a little bit, but it got the job done."

James Wood managed to get runners on second and third in the bottom of the second after a sacrifice bunt by Mitchell Precip, but Bass got Tyler Murphy to ground out to end the inning. It was a pattern that seemed to repeat itself every time the Colonels were on the brink of getting the tying run.

"Bass pitched a great game, and our defense played a real good game, too," Helmick said.

The Skyline defense played seven innings of error-free baseball, and an unexpected hero stepped up to make two critical plays for the Hawks that frustrated two James Wood scoring opportunities.

"You don't see that in many high school baseball games," Taylor said of the Hawks' lack of errors. "But we do a good job of working hard in the field. We stress fundamentals in both hitting and fielding in practice every day."

The Colonels seemed to get unexpected help from Skyline when starting catcher Ryan Settle was ejected from the game after striking out in the third inning. But backup catcher George Carter came in and made one of the most important plays of the game.

"George is a very good catcher," Taylor said. "He consistently works hard, and he always comes to play. He's a good baseball player, and he makes the plays when we need them."

Carter twice threw out James Wood base runners attempting to steal second base. The most important one came in the seventh inning.

Trailing 1-0 with one out, James Wood's Scott Johnson slapped a ball to shallow right to put the tying run on base. With Tyler Dick, who had singled his last time at bat, coming up, Johnson attempted to steal second to get into scoring position.

But Carter threw Johnson out, clearing the bases. Bass then struck out Dick to end the game.

"We just didn't execute in critical situations," Colonels coach Jared Mounts said. "But you have to give their backup catcher a lot of credit. Every time we tried to steal he threw us out."

Carter's heroics weren't the only defensive gem of the game. With Barber tiring in the fourth, Skyline loaded the bases with one out thanks to a walk, an error and a single by Eli McEathron.

Mounts replaced Barber on the mound with Garrett Cunningham, and Skyline's Luke Pingley launched a high fly ball to deep center that looked like a sure grand slam. Just as the ball was about to leave the park, Murphy jumped high at the fence and caught it for the last out of the inning.

"Tyler kept us in the game with that play," Mounts said. "He made a great play at the warning track with the bases loaded. If he hadn't made that play, we would have been out of the game."

Bass got the win for the Hawks, allowing just four hits through seven innings. Barber took the loss, giving up just one run on four hits. Cunningham pitched 2 2/3 innings of hitless baseball in relief of Barber.