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Northwest rallies to win tournament

Jonathan E. Coleman / Independent Tribune

Northwest Cabarrus' Jordan Phillips (7) celebrates with teammates after scoring a run during the championship game of the 7th annual Intimidators' Classic baseball tournament at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium Thursday, April 16, 2009.

By Paul Hershey | Independent Tribune

Published: April 17, 2009

Trailing and down to its final three outs, Northwest Cabarrus had the game right where it wanted it Thursday night.

For the third time in as many contests, the Trojans came up with a big inning in their final at-bat —this time a four-run seventh that lifted them to a dramatic 9-8 victory over county rival Hickory Ridge in the championship game of the Intimidators Classic.

Cory Seager tied it with a two-run single and then slid in with the game-winning run on a base hit by Jon Wallace, capping a third straight comeback win and a fifth Intimidators Classic title for Northwest.

"It's a great thing for these guys," Northwest head coach Joe Hubbard said. "They're excited about it. It means a lot to us simply because it's halfway through the year and it showed something about the character of this team that they can step up being down and come back at any time.

"These guys... we were down, but they were never out. They never laid down. They battled hard the whole time and that's a credit to them."

Down 8-5 in a seesaw battle, Northwest got its latest rally started with a single by Michael Hagwood and a hit batter — something the Trojans had in each of their previous comebacks.

Hickory Ridge's Cole Burnside came on in relief of starter Zach Andrews and got a flyout. But a single by Jordan Phillips loaded the bases. Hagwood then scored on a groundout to make it 8-6 before Seager blasted a long single off the right-field wall to even it up.

An infield single off the bat of Taylor West moved Seager to second, setting up Wallace, who singled up the middle, scoring Seager ahead of a high throw.

"When we came in (after the top of the seventh), I said, 'guys, we've won the seventh inning every
game," Hubbard said. "Why stop here?'

"Corey's hit I thought was gone when it left the bat. And J-Wall has come through clutch in the seventh inning all week long."

Wallace's hit was the 20th of the game for Northwest. Hickory Ridge, which had 23 hits in its semifinal win, had 12 of its own in the final.

"We made some mistakes tonight and we pitched four or five guys," Hubbard said. "Hickory Ridge is an excellent team. They hit the ball hard. We just got a couple guys on at the end and stepped up with some big hits."

Northwest jumped out to a 3-0 lead on five hits in the first inning. Phillips and Travis Watkins each singled and scored on a two-run single up the middle by Seager. Matt Greene added an RBI single to score Seager.

The Trojans made it 4-0 in the second when Cullen Perry hit a leadoff double and eventually scored on an infield hit off the bat of West.

Hickory Ridge had two runners on with less than two outs in the first two innings and failed to convert.

But the Ragin' Bulls weren't deterred and finally broke through against Northwest starter Graham Lawing in the third.

Travis Baucom led off with a double, Andrews singled and Mike Zinkann walked to load the bases and bring in reliever Walker Smith. Colten Love then blooped a two-run single to shallow left and Jarrod Brown's single down the left-field line brought the Ragin' Bulls to within 4-3.

Hickory Ridge took its first lead with two runs in the fourth. Andrews blooped a single to right-center and scored when a hard grounder off the bat of Zinkann got past Northwest third baseman Wallace. Love followed with an RBI single to make it 5-4.

The Trojans quickly tied it back up in a bizarre bottom of the fourth when they got five singles — two of them infield — but also had two runners thrown out at the plate. Wallace's RBI single scored Seager.

The Ragin' Bulls took the lead right back, though, in the top of fifth. Blake Sides led off with a single and J.V. Pender singled off reliever Austin Noyes. A flyout moved the runners up and Sides scored on a groundball to second off the bat of Baucom. Pender then scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-5.

Hickory Ridge added another run in the seventh when Sides chopped a leadoff single, went to third on a throwing error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Burnside.

Sixteen of the 18 hitters in the two lineups had at least one hit in the game.
Phillips went 4 for 5, while Seager, Watkins and West each had three hits for the Trojans (7-7). Wallace, Hagwood and Perry each added two hits.

Baucom, Andrews, Love, Luke Hall and Sides each had two hits for Hickory Ridge (8-9).

Seager was named the tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tourney team by teammates Phillips and Watkins. Zinkann and Andrews were honored from Hickory Ridge.

Also on the all-tourney team were A.L. Brown's Zach Wright and Quin Gill, Mount Pleasant's Garrett Furr and Matt Barrier, Concord's Eric Brenk and Patrick Jenkins, Jay M. Robinson's Thomas Emery and Anthony Holdridge and Central Cabarrus' Dalton Shuford and Mike Oxendine.