NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Hat High pitcher Payton Eddy (between #1 and #5) smiles off his water jug shower after the Hawks 2-0 win over the McCoy Colts Wednesday night at Athletic Park to capture the provincial senior highschool baseall championship.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Hat High Hawks won the final and most important battle of Medicine Hat.
The Hawks senior boys baseball team beat the McCoy Colts 2-0 Wednesday night at Athletic Park to capture the Alberta Premiere Baseball League Championship. Hat High’s JV team also captured their provincial title last weekend, also by beating the Colts.
Hawks starting pitcher Payton Eddy threw a seven-inning complete-game shutout while registering nine strikeouts and only allowing four hits. He said it just feels good to win.
“Obviously it feels really good, it feels good to win and we’ve worked really hard throughout the whole year for this, so it just feels awesome,” Eddy said.
The Hawks scored the only two runs of the game in the top of the first inning. Eddy helped his own cause with a hit and a run scored.
Hawks head coach Lyall Foran said scoring those early runs helped keep the confidence high for his team.
“That was a tight game, both teams really played well defensively and we knew that was kind of going to be the way that it was going to go,” Foran said. “Evan Morrison, he’s a great pitcher as well, and I have the opportunity to coach him this summer on Monarchs, and I’ve seen him do some great things … being able to get those two runs in the first inning was huge for us to give us a little bit of confidence and allow Eddy to settle down, allowed our defence to settle down and the rest of the way we were just trying to continue the momentum.”
Colts pitcher Evan Morrison also went the distance, registering seven strikeouts while giving up six hits and the two runs. Colts head coach Cole Schreiber said he thinks his team played well enough to win and they’ll look to next season now.
“That’s baseball, one team has to come out on top, unfortunately it was them,” Schreiber said. “I felt we played good enough to win the game. I think a break here or there, maybe a rally starter for us, I think things go a different way. But it is what it is and we move on from here and get ready for next year.”
He said his message to the team after the loss was to hold their heads high.
“There’s not a lot else you can say, everybody’s obviously really disappointed,” Schreiber said. “You can’t really judge a season on one game. I think we finished the year 8-2, so to say that we only lost two games all year is obviously a pretty successful season and we can hold our heads high.”
Both Medicine Hat teams faced off twice in the regular season, each taking a win. The Hawks were able to take the final contest of the year and finish their campaign with the same record of 8-2.
Foran said getting those chances to play McCoy earlier in the year paid dividends when they faced them in the most important game.
Trevin Ressler and Cade Harrison both had two hits and an RBI in the Hawks win. Ressler, who answered the bell throughout the Hawks playoff run, said the win shows the work they put in and how bad they wanted it.
“I don’t think we’ve played a game that strong this season as well, we just played our game,” Ressler said.
Each team’s all-stars were awarded after the game with Kayne Olinski, Caleb Garrecht, Jackson Bowal, Kyle Woolridge and Morrison receiving the honours on the Colts. The Hawks all-stars were Jeff Bullock, Ressler, Harrison and Eddy.
Foran was named coach of the year within the Lethbridge-based league.
Ressler said Foran was the reason they worked so hard.
“He’s been a great coach, I’ve worked with him for a couple of years now and he’s the reason that we grind so hard. He puts so much work and trust into us and we believe and we play hard for him,” Ressler said.
