Senior Bucs lead charge to semis
HOOVER – Adam Moseley has touted the quality of the Hoover High School baseball team’s senior class all season long.
That group of 13 has proven Moseley right time and again and did so again on Saturday, as the Bucs swept Grissom in the Class 7A quarterfinals. Hoover won Game 1, 5-3, before nailing down the series with a 1-0 triumph in Game 2.
In a scoreless game in the second contest of the afternoon, Garrett Farquhar singled with one out in the seventh inning and advanced to second on a passed ball. Brandon Agsalud then delivered the pivotal blow. He smacked a single through the left side of the infield for a hit, allowing Farquhar to come around to score and give the Bucs the 1-0 edge, as the bench exploded with jubilation.
“It was the biggest moment of the year, obviously,” Moseley said.
Brock Guffey took the ball one final time in the bottom of the seventh and put the nail in the coffin. After striking out the first batter, he walked the second batter of the inning. But the game and series was secured when the next batter stroked a line drive right to first baseman Drew Guffey, who caught the liner and turned around to tag the runner out for the third out.
What do Farquhar, Agsalud and both Guffeys all have in common? They are seniors.
“These guys all accept their roles and they model that for everybody else,” Moseley said of his seniors. “There’s not a selfish one in the whole bunch. Their leadership is just incredible, absolutely incredible.”
Brock Guffey allowed just five hits and two walks in his shutout performance, while also striking out eight batters. Farquhar registered two of Hoover’s five hits in the game.
In the first game of the day, the Bucs rallied from a two-run deficit to win. Both teams cashed in a run in the first inning, but Grissom used back-to-back doubles to score a pair and take a 3-1 edge in the third.
The Bucs got one run back in the bottom of the third on Sonny DiChiara’s RBI groundout to cut the deficit to 3-2.
DiChiara came through again in the fifth inning, as his single plated Nolan Hammonds to tie the game at 3-3. Peyton Wilson came around to score immediately afterwards, as Farquhar hit a sacrifice fly to allow Wilson to scamper home for the 4-3 lead.
Hammonds drove in another run to extend the lead to 5-3 with his RBI groundout in the sixth.
“Good situational hitting,” Moseley said. “Guys hitting the ball the other way, just hitting them where they’re pitched.”
Scott Elgin took the ball for Hoover in Game 1 and hurled 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on six hits. He walked three and struck out six as well, as he notched the win. DiChiara threw 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to seal the outcome.
With the win, the Bucs advance to the semifinals, where they will play the winner of the Oak Mountain vs. Vestavia Hills series, which will be decided by Game 3 on Monday at 5 p.m. at Vestavia. Hoover would host Vestavia, and travel to Oak Mountain next week.
Having coached previously at Grissom, Moseley called this week “the toughest week of my coaching career,” noting that he coached or coached with each current Grissom coach during his tenure there.
That challenge is past, and now Moseley can focus on beating a team not far from him in either case.
“Whoever we play is going to be really, really good. But we just played a really, really good team too. It’s just tough. This time of year, nobody’s bad,” Moseley said.