Published Tuesday, April 01, 2008 1:40 PM
Updated Tuesday, April 01, 2008 4:01 PM

 

A hard HIT for Dorchester teams

Everything didn't go Summerville's way during the 39th annual Hanahan Invitational Tournament, but things certainly seemed to line up in the Wave's favor toward the end.

None of the Dorchester varsity teams made bracket play this year, but coaches say they faced some good competition during the HIT and should be better off for it now that they have returned to region play. Summerville turned in the best local performance in the tournament, which featured 30 varsity teams from all over.

The Green Wave went 2-1 in the tournament with wins over Pinewood and St. Raymond of New York and a loss to Unicoi of Tennessee. However, one of Summerville's most exciting games over Spring Break was a pick-up game Thursday against Christopher Columbus of Miami, Fla.

It took eight innings, but Summerville won the heated battle by a 6-5 margin on a double by Cory Drawdy that plated Branden Millhouse. The double was one of two plays for which everything just seemed to fall in place for the Wave.

"You couldn't have scripted that any better," Summerville coach Burt Bazzle said. "We had our fastest guy on first base and the guy with the hot stick at the plate."

Drawdy hit two doubles the day before to lead Summerville in a 7-1 victory over St. Raymond and had already hit another two Thursday when he came up to bat in the bottom of the eighth.

The Wave trailed 3 to 5 entering the bottom of the sixth inning, but rallied to tie it. A pivotal play came with two outs.

Chad Brisben, who reached base after being hit by a pitch and advanced to third on a double by Zach Dibble, tagged on a sacrifice fly by Millhouse. As Brisben raced for home plate, the Christopher Columbus catcher moved into his path and was leveled by the 6-5, 250-pound base runner, who is also an offensive tackle for the Green Wave football team.

"It just happened to be the biggest guy on the field who was trying to get to home plate," Bazzle said. "If you're a catcher, you just don't block the plate without the ball. We certainly don't teach our guys to set up in that spot."

Brisben's run took the score to 5-4. Drawdy came to the plate next and hit his second double of the game to plate Dibble and tie the score at 5-all.

Tyler Fletcher pitched five innings for Summerville, who used three relief pitchers in the final three innings. In Wednesday's win over St. Raymond, Jacob Webb went the distance, striking out 12 batters en route to the win. He also hit a solo homerun in the game.

The Fort

Fort Dorchester won it's first game of the tournament against St. Edmunds, NY and its second game against Northwoods Academy. The Patriots then dropped their third game to Greenbriar, Va. Like Summerville, the Fort missed out on advancing into  bracket play because other two-win teams allowed fewer runs in their HIT victories.

"Overall we played very well," Fort coach Jack Radcliffe said. "If we would have eliminated the mental mistakes and made the routine plays, then we would have won game three also."

Fort Dorchester (4-7) travels to Summerville (8-4) for a big region contest April 2. The JV game is scheduled for 4 p.m., and will be followed by the varsity game at 7 p.m.

Pinewood

Pinewood Prep had a tough week, dropping three games in the HIT.  The Panthers opened the tournament with an 8-6 loss to Summerville. James Island handled the Panthers in the second game 8-3 and the Panthers dropped their final game to host Hanahan by a score of 11-7.