A long day of baseball ended up leaving the Heritage Christian Academy Warriors pretty tired, but pretty happy. The Warriors finished the day Saturday with a 8-6 win over Whitefield Academy, their third win of the way, to take the KCAC state baseball championship.
The Warriors looked to be in trouble late in the title game, trailing 6-3 going into the top of the seventh. However, the Warriors reached down deep and scored five times to take an 8-6 lead into the bottom half of the inning.
Ethan Miles’ bases-loaded triple with one out in the top of the seventh put the Warriors in front. Miles then scored an insurance run on a wild pitch.
Caden Hale, who came on in relief in the bottom of the fifth, then struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh to wrap up the title for the Warriors.
Ethan Miles finished the championship game 4-5 with a triple, three RBIs and two runs scored. For his efforts Saturday, Miles was named the tournament MVP. His teammate Collin Outland was named to the All-Tournament team.
In the semifinals, Heritage Christian had another late-game rally, this one 3 runs in the top of the sixth inning as the Warriors overcame a 4-2 deficit to grab the 5-4 win over Highlands Latin.
It was another Ethan MIles triple that turned out to be the big hit of the rally. This one drove in two runs and tied the game at 4-4. Caden Gresham followed up Miles hit with a single to center to drive in the winning run.
Miles was 2-4 with three RBIs and a run scored. Gresham finished the game 3-4 with an RBI.
It was Caden Gresham’s two-out single in the bottom of the 7th inning drove in Lawson Clark with the game-winning run in the first game of the day Saturday for the HCA Warriors at the KCAC state baseball tournament as the Warriors got past Somerset Christian 5-4.
The game was played Saturday morning after rain Friday afternoon forced the postponement of the game.
The winning run came after Somerset Christian had rallied to tie the game in the top half of the inning on a Warrior fielding miscue.
Somerset had taken a 3-0 lead in the top of the second inning. After that, Heritage Christian chipped away at the lead, one run at a time.
HCA got a run in the bottom of the second, a run in the fourth, and then a run in the fifth to tie the game at 3-3. The Warriors took the lead in the bottom of the 6th on a passed ball.
Three errors were huge for HCA as they actually outhit Somerset Christian 12-3 for the game.
Collin Outland had a big game at the plate, going 3-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Ethan Miles added two hits for the Warriors.
Miles went 6 ⅔ innings on the mound, giving up four runs on three hits, striking out 12 and walking 5.
