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CHILLICOTHE — When the dust had settled Tuesday evening, Huntington junior Brayden Elliott admitted he was nervous with the ball in his hand.
With the Huntsmen leading 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning and two outs, Ironton had the tying run occupying third base and the potential go-ahead run standing at first.
The wait of the world was sitting on Elliott’s shoulders in a must-win game.
But when he needed it the most, the southpaw reached deep into his repertoire for a heater — one of his best ones throughout the entire evening.
A swing and a miss ended the threat and sent Huntington (20-6) to a district title game. So much for pressure.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
“He clutched up,” Huntington coach Chad Carroll said of Elliott. “He started out a little slow this year and his arm wasn’t really ready. But since then, he’s been lights out. We knew what we had coming into it. We were just watching his pitch count at the end. That was our only worry. But we knew he could get it done.”
Elliott’s gem was the centerpiece of the victory.
In seven innings of work, he allowed just four hits and struck out eight without giving up an earned run. He was also forced to work out of jams all night long with four errors on the board.
It’s something that Huntington will look to sure up moving forward, but also something that’s far from impossible to fix.
“The good thing about those errors are, if that is such a thing, is that they were more mental than anything else,” Carroll said. “We prepared for that stuff and the kids know what to do. Sometimes, teams just out-execute you and it forces your mind to think. Those are things we can easily clean up.”
The Huntsmen wasted no time getting on the scoreboard.
In the top of the first, after a leadoff double from Braylon Leach, DJ Crocker followed suit to trade places and make it a 1-0 ballgame. Later in the inning, Seth Throckmorton laced an RBI single into right field, scoring Crocker and pushing the Huntsmen’ lead to 2-0.
In the second, Mitchell Willis played add-on with an RBI single, making it 3-0, and chasing Ironton starter Tommy Sheridan from the hill. Throckmorton later pushed the lead to 4-0 with his second RBI single in as many innings.
“We wanted to send a message early,” Carroll said. “We told the guys that we didn’t want to sit on our heels. We wanted to be aggressive and take it to [Ironton] early while hopefully withstanding some of their hits. That’s exactly how it played out.”
Ironton (14-11) got a run back in the third, thanks to a sacrifice fly from Jon Wylie, cutting the deficit to 4-1.
In the fifth, more of the same took place when Wylie knocked in another run with a sacrifice fly. But Huntington turned a double play to end the inning, keeping a 4-2 lead intact.
The Tigers continued to chip away in the sixth when Braydon Baker legged out an infield single to score Chayden Kerns, producing a 4-3 tally.
But in the seventh, even while under duress, Elliott clamped down and worked out of trouble with a game-ending strikeout to preserve a district semifinal victory.
“I think the fast start gave the guys confidence,” Carroll said. “We weren’t taking anything for granted tonight. We wanted to come out here and put runs on the board early. That allowed us to collect ourselves.”
Offensively, Throckmorton led Huntington with a 2-for-3 effort alongside a pair of RBIs. Leach followed, also going 2-for-3, with a double and two runs. Crocker finished 1-for-2 with a double, a run and an RBI, and Frankie Hirsch was 1-for-3 with a run.
As for Ironton, Wylie ended the night 0-for-2 with a pair of RBIs while Tyler Roach was 2-for-4.
While the Tigers’ season ends, Huntington advances to a Division III district final at 5 p.m. on Wednesday at VA Memorial Stadium. The Huntsmen will face Fairland, a winner over Zane Trace.
A win for Huntington would mark the program’s first-ever Division III district championship.
“I think we’re going to have to be a little more aggressive,” Carroll said. “We were a little more station to station tonight and that’s not really our game. It worked tonight and that’s a benefit when you don’t play the way you might have wanted to offensively but still get a win. But I think tomorrow, we just need to be a little more aggressive.”
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