Last Modified: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 11:39 p.m.
Seeking a good start to Western Athletic Conference play, West Henderson sent its most experienced pitcher to the mound.
Senior Daniel Hyatt delivered with a six-inning shutout of visiting Pisgah on Tuesday in the Falcons’ 10-0 victory. Junior Taylor Reeves provided the big blast with a game-ending two-run home run to left field in the bottom of the sixth.
“It’s always big to win the first conference game, especially when you’re at home,” said Falcon coach Jim Hyatt. “You’ve got to win those.”
West moves to 7-1 on the year and 1-0 in the league. Pisgah drops to 5-4, 0-1.
Hyatt allowed just five hits and one walk while striking out nine.
“The key thing for Daniel tonight was that his curve ball was working,” coach Hyatt said. “He got ahead of hitters early and unless he hung his curve ball they weren’t going to hit it. When they got runners on base he was able to bow his neck, get a couple of strikeouts and then we were able to make some plays behind him.”
The win sets up a highly-anticipated game at Brevard, which handed West a rare WAC loss last season, on Friday.
“We might throw (Daniel) the last two (innings) against Brevard depending on the situation,” said Hyatt. “We’ve got three other arms. The reason we lined up our pitching this way is we want to win our first conference game. We can’t win our second conference game until we’ve won the first conference game.”
West claimed the early lead on RBI doubles from Forrest Koontz and Dillon Baker in the first. The Falcons scored at least one run in every inning on a night when Coach Hyatt said the team didn’t hit as well as he thought they could.
Every Falcon reached base safely at least once and eight of the nine starters scored at least one run. Sophomore Baker, the likely starting pitcher against Brevard, went 3-for-4 with a run, two doubles and two RBIs. Reeves was 2-for-3 with two runs and a team-high three RBIs.
Most of the damage came against Black Bear starter Lucas McCracken, who allowed six runs, five earned, on six hits and four walks in four innings. He struck out three.
Pisgah’s Wesley Pope was 2-for-3 with two doubles. Brian Curry also had two hits in three at-bats.
West added a game for Thursday against unbeaten Smoky Mountain Conference contender Murphy.
“Murphy comes in with some pretty high billing,” Hyatt said. “The weather is killing everybody and I felt like if we didn’t stick a game in there somewhere we might be minus a game. I don’t know if people are going to able to make up games if the bad weather continues. Towards the end of the year we may have to drop a game. I don’t want to do that to somebody, but I think the weather’s going to take care of that for us.”
Linescore
;;;;;r;h;e
Pisgah:;0 0 0;0 0 0;x;—;0;5;1
West:;2 1 2;1 2 2;x;—;10;8;1
Winning pitcher: D. Hyatt (6 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 H, 9 Ks, 1 BBs)
Losing pitcher: McCracken (4 IP, 6 R, 5 ER, 6 H, 3 Ks, 4 BBs)
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