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Patton tops CVAC foe Hibriten, advances to West 2A title series

By MARK PARKER

Record Sports Correspondent

Published: May 27, 2009

LENOIR - Patton High got another shot at beating Hibriten on Tuesday night and won 5-0 on the road to move into the West 2A baseball title series.

Dykota Spiess and Chris Fine each hit a home run in the third inning and Nick Newton pitched a two-hit shutout to move Patton (25-6) into a best-of-three series against Mount Pleasant for a berth in the state 2A championship series.

The West 2A title series will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday and which home game(s) Patton gets will be determined today.

Mount Pleasant (24-6), the No. 2 seed from the Rocky River 2A, advanced with a 1-0, eight-inning home win over West Lincoln on Tuesday night.

Patton, the No. 2 2A seed from the Catawba Valley Athletic 2A-3A, ran its win streak to 12 games and handed Hibriten (20-7) only its second loss in a 10-game stretch.

Two weeks ago, Foard beat top-seeded Hibriten in the CVAC tournament semifinals and that prevented a third Hibriten-Patton game.

Hibriten and Patton split in the regular season and finished first and second, respectively.

After a scoreless first inning on Tuesday night, Patton went up 1-0 in the second inning against Hibriten starter Bryan Tuttle.

With one out, Reggie Washington lined a double to the wall in left field. After a single to shallow center by Nick Chapman advanced Washington to third, Eli Lawson drove in Washington with a groundball single up the middle.

Patton opened the game up with a three-run third inning via its power.

Tuttle hit Matt Baker with the first pitch of the third inning. The next hitter, Spiess, sent a 3-2 pitch over the right-field fence for two runs. An out later, Fine hit a towering shot down the line in left, easily clearing the fence.

Hibriten attempted to rally in its half of the third. After retiring the first six hitters he faced, Newton issued a leadoff walk to Gavin Christian.

One out later, Hibriten coach Terry Henthrone called for a hit-and-run. With Patton second baseman Matt Baker covering second on the play, Austin Beard hit a flare just out of the reach of the retreating Baker, leaving runners at first and second.

Then, with two outs, Hibriten loaded the bases on a walk to Joel Woods. But Newton got out of the inning on a soft liner to short by Jack Howard, leaving the bases loaded.

"I thought he threw the ball real well," said Patton coach Brandon Scott of Newton. "He got in a little trouble in the third walking a couple of guys, but he worked got out of it and this was big for him."

Patton added its other run in the sixth inning as Fine reached on a hit batsman to lead off the inning and later scored on a single by Chapman.

At that point, Scott said there was no question that Newton would have every opportunity to finish the game.

" When we came her last time (a 5-2 victory), he threw 6 1/3 innings and we had to bring a closer in to finish it," Scott said. "When we were up in the sixth inning, I told him that he was going back out there to finish it this time.

"I'm real proud of him."

Hibriten got two runners on in the seventh inning via a walk and on a shot by Beard off Newton's foot that went for an infield single with two outs.

But Newton quickly ended it, getting Matt Edwards on a fly ball to right.