Gardner – Saturday’s matchup between regional foes Shady Spring and PikeView was a collision of teams on different trajectories. Both remain on opposite courses.
Shady concluded a 5-0 week, scoring 10-plus runs for the fourth consecutive game in an 18-10 win over the Class AAA No. 1-ranked Panthers in Gardner.
The victory capped a week that began with wins over regional foes Princeton and Independence. For PikeView it was the conclusion to an 0-4 week which saw it drop games against Independence, Greenbrier East, Sissonville and finally Shady, all regional foes in a nine-team region.
“We went from a team that could make three errors and we have a big hit and we’re fine, we’re happy about it,” PikeView head coach Josh Wyatt said. “We went from a team that was supporting one another to a team that I locked our stats because it turned into ‘Well I’m doing this, I’m doing that.’ Yeah, but you had seven errors too. That brotherhood is definitely – there’s some struggle there. They need to be in the beach house and learn to fight together and fight for one another rather than fight against each other all the time.”
For Shady the formula remained the same – start fast at the plate and the Tigers did that again, scoring at least three runs in the first frame. Saturday’s number was five, keyed by starting pitcher Kayden Quesenberry who hit a grand-slam in the first inning.
It was a hit that almost never happened as an error allowed the first batter, Jalon Bailey, to reach. PikeView ace Eli Hilling retired the next two which would’ve ended the inning but instead the next three batters – Cutter Boggs, Sam Barnett and Brody Seabolt – all reached with two outs to set the stage for Quesenberry.
“That’s the thing that I stress to my guys about high school baseball,” Shady head coach Kendrick Epling said. ‘ If you don’t make errors, you make timely hits and you throw strikes, you don’t walk anybody, you win a lot of ball games. So, we try to take advantage of every opportunity that we can. If there’s a walk, if there’s an error or something like that, because most of the time, if there’s a walk or if there’s an error there’s always a double or something that happens.
“ If it’s on our side or if it’s on the other side, it always happens. It’s like the baseball gods know that they’re gonna take advantage of your mistakes. So that was kind of the thing. We took advantage of that error and, Kaden was able to pull through and hit a hit a grand slam that put the momentum in our favor.”
Quesenberry, who reached in all four plate appearances, had a beat on the ball.
“I’m on a five-game hit-streak right now and went up there looking for a first pitch fastball,” Quesenberry said. “I knew the kid threw low 80s. I was looking to crush the first pitch and I did.”
PikeView responded with a home run from Landon Wyatt in the bottom of the frame but each time it strung together runs, Shady followed with a bigger inning.
A run in the bottom of the second was met with three from the Tigers in the top of the third. A four-run PikeView sixth was met with a six-run Shady seventh. Particularly troublesome for the Panthers was the bottom of Shady’s order which reached eight times in 12 plate appearances, driving in eight of the Tigers’ 18 runs. Quesenberry’s home run was part of that output as was Jacob Claypool’s which came in the fifth inning.
The timely hitting was a factor as well with Shady stranding just three runners all game
“We changed our lineup right when we got on the streak,” Epling said. “We moved Cutter from leadoff to third in the lineup and it’s been a game-changer ever since. The bottom of the lineup was the MVP of the show today and if you can have the bottom of the lineup swing like that you’re going to win a lot of ball games.”
Bailey led Shady with three hits out of the leadoff spot while Quesenberry secured all four of his RBI on one swing. Boggs, who extended his hit streak to 17 games in his last at-bat, drove in three runs as did Claypool.
Eli Naylor, who homered as well, joined Wyatt, Christian Walters and Landon Bolen with two hits each.
For PikeView its annual spring break beach trip is on the horizon and seemingly couldn’t come at a better time.
“Absolutely,” Coach Wyatt said when asked if he’s worried about his team mentally. “That’s worrisome there. We’re not gonna hide that because we can’t get out of the woe is me. That’s truly what it is. We’re not reacting in situations because we’re still thinking about something that happened to us two innings ago. It’s a want to. That mentality, we had at the beginning of the year and we had some tough ball games.
“Just like the Christiansburg ball game. That’s the best team that I’ve coached against since I’ve been here and we were making plays all over the field. And for them, that mentality of just wanting the ball every time is not there. So in return it makes you scared to make a play. We’re better than this. We’ll get to the beach and hopefully speed our game back up. You know, play a little bit faster.”
