MORGANTOWN — University pitcher Evan Smith understands the importance of controlling the pace of the game.
The Hawks hosted Preston on Tuesday at Mylan Park in the Class AAA sectional tournament. Coming off a night of solid contact at the plate “that just found gloves,” according to Preston coach Glen McNew Jr., in an 11-1 loss to Morgantown, the Knights hoped to rekindle that flame and turn it into an upset, but Smith handled it well. He tossed six strikeouts in four no-hit innings to shut down the Knights and help secure a 13-2 win.
“I thought he did a great job at getting ahead of batters and he was able to dictate the pace for the hitters rather than struggling to find the plate and letting the batters get the advantage,” University coach Buck Riggleman said.
After seeing limited action on the mound in Monday’s sectional loss to Buckhannon-Upshur, Smith was trusted to lead the Hawks (9-16) in their most crucial game of the season, with both teams at one loss in the double-elimination bracket, the loser would see its season end. Smith knew what was at stake and found his rhythm early.
“I just hit my spots and my arm felt good; I pitched one inning yesterday but stayed eligible for today,” he said. “Connor (McDonough) did a great job behind the plate at catcher, my defense backed me up and I couldn’t ask for anything else.”
Despite beginning to find confidence at the plate in recent games, the Knights (6-13) seemed to fall flat and checked out once Smith began to handle batters consistently at the plate.
“We didn’t pitch well and we didn’t catch anything, but we made up for it by not being able to hit anything,” McNew said. “We came out last night against Morgantown and we played well and hit the ball right at them — tonight, we just didn’t show up.”
Smith jumped ahead of the count consistently, putting Preston batters’ backs against the wall with first and second pitch strikes. According to Smith, getting ahead early takes pressure off mentally and allows him to get creative with his pitching choices.
“Whenever you’re up in the count, it opens your arsenal; you can throw whatever you want, not have to worry about walking batters or letting up bombs, and stuff like that,” he said.
Despite seeing their season end, the Knights finished with more wins than they earned during their previous campaign — it is the third-consecutive season the Knights have accomplished the feat.
“It goes back to what I’m talking about; baseball is a different sport. In other sports, you’ll be up all the time, but in baseball there are times you have to learn to relax and focus. That’s going to take a few years,” McNew said. “It’s a totally different thing. These kids are kind of used to losing it takes time to understand the amount of work it takes to be a competitive team. We’ve won more games than the past year for three seasons straight — we’ll look to continue that.”
The Hawks will face the Buckhannon-Upshur again at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The pressure doesn’t stop for University, as it will continue to face lose-and-go-home scenarios for the rest of the postseason.
“It’s basically what I told them after the game, you survived to play another day, and from here on out, that’s what this is,” Riggleman said. “You have to play, and if you win, you go on, you lose you go home, and that’s the approach we have to take. It’s simple. The last two weeks of the regular season, we played some better baseball. We ended things on a positive note, and we’ll see what happens from here.”
