Defense wins championships and that’s exactly how Harrison beat Lassiter (8-6, 3-1) in front of a packed crowd at the Lassiter Baseball Complex Saturday to lay claim to the school’s second state championship and first since 1998.
Harrison pitcher Christian Turnipseed did something no other pitcher had done this post-season- stop a powerful Lassiter offense. Turnipseed tossed a complete game, struck out seven and allowed just one run to lead the Hoyas (29-9) to a series clinching Game 2 victory. After trailing early in Game 2, Harrison’s offense gave them just enough to earn a win. In the bottom of the second inning, Preston Neely hit an RBI single to tie the game, 1-1. The next batter, Jason Celler, followed with an RBI single of his own to score Matthew Allen and give the Hoyas a 2-1 lead. Harrison would add a run on an RBI single from Adam Martin the next inning, and that would be all Turnipseed and the defense needed.
The Lassiter offense was frustrated all night by a great Harrison defense, and as Turnipseed said, "Good things happen when you’re throwing strikes." In the first inning, Lassiter’s Reed Anthes was gunned down at home after a fly ball to right field from Brandon Stephens that could’ve given Lassiter an early 2-0 lead. Instead, the inning ended with Lassiter scoring just one run. Then, in the fourth, Harrison again erased a potential Lassiter run when they gunned down Lassiter’s Wes Burns on a would-be RBI double from Andrew Gordon. The game was delayed because of lightning in the top of the fifth and Lassiter’s offense couldn’t get anything going when the game resumed.
Game 1 was lumberjack baseball, as the two teams went back and forth the entire game. Again, defense was the difference, though. Lassiter made three errors and had three passed balls that were costly. Harrison trailed 6-5 in the fourth when Martin hit an RBI single to tie the game. In the fifth, Harrison broke the tie on RBIs from Connor Hughes and Michael Hodorowski to give the Hoyas an 8-6 lead, which would be the final.
Harrison coach Mark Elkins earned his first state championship as head coach. Elkins was an assistant on the 1998 team. "We’ve been through a lot this year and I’m so excited for our players. They’ve worked very hard," Elkins said. "Things haven’t been real easy for us, but [the team] came together at the right time."
For Lassiter (26-10), it’s another season of what could have been, as the Trojans are state runners-up for the sixth time in the last fifteen years. The Trojans rolled through the first four rounds of the playoffs, going unbeaten and winning by an average score of 11-5. But the offense wasn’t its usual self on Saturday. Slugger Brandon Stephens, who was hitting .468 on the season, was just 1-for-7 in the two game series. The Trojans were thrown out at home three times in the two games and the defense didn’t help out much, as Lassiter was sloppy defensively in both games. Nonetheless, it was an impressive season for Lassiter in their first year under Scott Kelly. With key players like Anthes and Nelson Ward returning next year, expect this team to compete at the highest level once again next year.
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