Mar 11, 2008
Tempers flare in Falcons' victory
West Henderson blasts Erwin, 14-3.
By Dean Hensley
Times-News Staff Writer
ASHEVILLE -- When West Henderson senior Casey Allison approached the plate Monday in the top of the seventh inning at Erwin, he knew what was going to happen."One of my assistant coaches saw the Erwin coaches give the intentional signal, and by intentional, I mean that they were planning on hitting Casey," Falcon coach Jim Hyatt said after his team cruised to an easy 14-3 win. "We knew it, they knew it and Casey knew it. Casey even told the umpire before the pitch was thrown that he was going to get hit."Warrior reliever Chris Seager's pitch plunked the back of Allison, and Allison threw his bat down in anger as he headed down the first-base line. Close behind was his coach, ready to defend his player."You know that was intentional don't you? You know that," Hyatt screamed to the home plate umpire, but to no avail. Allison took his base, and Seager remained in the game with West up 12-2.Hyatt stormed back down the third-base line as fans yelled at him and he yelled back. He then told his team to put up some more runs, and West did, added two more in the inning."There's no place in the game for that, especially Casey and what he's been through. That's a kid that had reconstructive surgery on his face after getting hit with a pitch, so I can't just sit back and watch something like that happen to him. Plus, they had tried it earlier in the game and also against Josh (Moore). They picked out our two best players and went after them," Hyatt said.Erwin coach Granville Gehris disagreed."It was not a situation that calls for somebody to be hit. This is high school baseball, and we did not intentionally throw at anybody. That's not how we teach the game, and that's not how we play it," he said. "At the same token, we have to establish the inside part of the plate as a pitcher."A year ago, the Falcons put a 23-1 pummeling on the Warriors, a game that Gehris remembers very well."Allison was one of the boys last year that Jim left in. They were up 19-0 and Allison goes on to hit his third home run against us," Gehris said.Hyatt said during that game, he had just 10 healthy players and didn't have anyone to sub for Allison."Today, (Hyatt) is out there stealing bases when he's up 14-2. These are the golden rules of baseball -- you don't steal when you're up more than 10 and you don't try to run it up on somebody, but that's just what he does. When you schedule Jim, you just have to realize that's part of the package. We won't be scheduling them in the future," Gehris said.Hyatt's son, Daniel, had the hot bat Monday, going 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base. Tyler Isgett also had a big day, going 2-for-3 with a home run and four RBIs for the Falcons (4-0).Josh Moore picked up the win, going seven innings, allowing three runs off three hits with four strikeouts and no walks.Linescorer h eWest Henderson: 3 0 0 2 4 1 4 -- 14 12 2Erwin: 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 -- 3 3 1Winning pitcher: Josh Moore (1-0) (7 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 H, 4 Ks, 0 BBs)Losing pitcher: Josh Smith (3 2/3 IP, 5 R, 2 ER, 6 H, 1 K, 4 BBs)
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