Bucs on to 2nd round after sweep of Buckhorn
HOOVER – The wind died down in between games, but the Hoover High School baseball team found two different ways to win on Friday night, as the No. 3 Bucs swept No. 4 Buckhorn in a Class 7A first-round playoff series at Hoover.
Hoover hit four home runs in the first game en route to an 8-3 victory, but Game 2 proved much different, as both pitchers went toe-to-toe, and Hoover prevailed with a 3-1 win to earn a berth in the second round.
“Competitiveness and having success,” Hoover coach Adam Moseley said he was happy to see his team put on display. “Seeing a team playing together, that’s what you want. Guys on both sides could’ve folded at any time but they didn’t."
With the win, the Bucs will host Grissom -- who swept Spain Park on Friday -- in the second round.
Game 1: Hoover 8, Buckhorn 3
Four home runs proved enough for Hoover in Game 1, as the Bucs pulled away from Buckhorn to take an 8-3 win in the initial game.
Sonny DiChiara launched two home runs in the contest, including his two-run shot in the first inning to get the scoring started. His blast to center gave the Bucs a 2-0 lead in the first inning, and the Bucs never trailed.
DiChiara helped himself out in the bottom of the sixth inning, as he lifted a ball into the “Cheap Seats” beyond left-center field to extend Hoover’s lead to the final margin. He pitched the final two innings of the game in relief of Scott Elgin, and allowed two runs on three hits.
Elgin went five solid innings for the Bucs, surrendering just five hits and a run, with no walks and four strikeouts. The only run he allowed was to Kyle Davis, his opposite number on the mound, whose solo homer put Buckhorn on the board in the fifth.
CJ Gilliland drove in a pair of runs in his 2-for-3 performance. His line shot to right field leading off the second sailed over the wall to give Hoover the 3-0 lead. In his next plate appearance, he drove in Brandon Agsalud – who finished 2-for-2 with a walk -- with a single to make it 4-0.
Buckhorn cut the lead to 4-3 in the sixth, as DiChiara balked in a run and allowed a subsequent one on a groundout to first. After a walk and single, DiChiara escaped trouble with a strikeout to end the frame.
The Bucs put the game out of reach with their four-run sixth, as Max Garvey singled and Nolan Hammonds reached on an error to set up Peyton Wilson’s three-run bomb. DiChiara made it back-to-back big flies with his second blast of the evening.
Following a leadoff single in the seventh, DiChiara forced a fly out, strikeout and groundout to end the contest.
Buckhorn starter Kyle Davis allowed nine hits and eight runs (seven earned) in 5 2/3 innings of work.
“You pop a couple up with the wind blowing and good things can happen. (Davis) wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination,” Moseley said.
Game 2: Hoover 3, Buckhorn 1
For the majority of the contest, Brock Guffey retired Buckhorn hitters at will. Then troubled brewed in the seventh inning. Then Guffey reached back for a little extra and got the final two outs to strand the bases loaded and lift Hoover to a 3-1 win and a sweep of Buckhorn.
After retiring the first batter in the seventh, Buckhorn’s Hayden Wright laced a double to right-center field. Cory Mason then popped a ball straight into the air, no more than 30 feet in front of the plate. But a miscommunication by the infielders caused the ball to drop. Guffey hit the next batter, Ethan Jones to load the bases with just one out, and the Bucs nursing a two-run edge.
“You try to get them to realize that they’ve been there before,” said Moseley. “The guys out there at the end of the game are the guys that have been there before, and they just breathed deep, and somehow got it done.”
Guffey took his coach’s advice to heart, and struck out Jackson Holladay and got Drew Hill to ground out to short to end the ball game.
After totaling five homers in the first game, both teams manufactured their runs in the second game after the breeze died almost completely in the nightcap. Hoover struck in the first inning, much like in the first game. Peyton Wilson singled and Sonny DiChiara doubled to put a pair of runners in scoring position, and Garrett Farquhar’s sacrifice fly gave the Bucs a 1-0 advantage.
The Bucs scored first in each game, which helped, but wasn’t a deal-breaker for Hoover in the players’ minds, based on past experiences.
“Our group, just like Buckhorn, has kind of proven this year that they don’t have to do that. We’ll come from behind. But in the playoffs, I think it’s a big deal,” Moseley said.
CJ Gilliland picked up his third RBI on the day with a run-scoring single in the fourth inning to make it 2-0. Brandon Agsalud reached second on a fielder’s choice after an errant Buckhorn throw while attempting to turn a double play.
Aaron Zawacki’s leadoff single in the bottom of the fifth led to Kyle Davis’ RBI groundout to cut Hoover’s lead to 2-1. But the Bucs got the run right back in the fifth, as Drew Guffey’s leadoff double set up Nolan Hammonds’ RBI single to give the Bucs the 3-1 lead, one that would stand up.
Both pitchers went the distance in Game 2. Brock Guffey dazzled for Hoover, throwing seven innings and allowing five hits, one run, one walk and six strikeouts. Buckhorn’s Griffin Johnson nearly matched him, surrendering three runs on five hits in seven innings, along with a walk and four strikeouts.
“He’s just a competitor,” Moseley said of Brock Guffey. “That’s the first run he’s given up in awhile. He just competed his tail off. It was fun to watch.”
Despite managing to pull off the sweep, Moseley spoke to the challenge of defeating Buckhorn, a team boasting 16 seniors this spring.
“Coach (Roger) Wright does as good a job as anybody in the state. They had 16 seniors, so they weren’t going down easy,” Moseley said.
The playoff series was the first Moseley has won in his three years at Hoover, after the Bucs fell in the first round each of the past two seasons.