Ty Nettles Shuts Down Huntington in Class AAAA Quarterfinals

 By Ben Anderson


    In the fourth meeting between No. 1 George Washington and No. 8 Huntington on the season, the Patriots defeated the Highlanders 6-1 behind the arm of senior Ty Nettles in the WVSSAC State Baseball Tournament Class AAAA Quarterfinals Wednesday afternoon. 


    The southpaw went 5 ⅔ innings of hitless baseball, allowing seven walks, and 10 strikeouts. The majority of his strikeouts came the first time through the order, striking out six of the first nine batters he faced. 


    “Kept working on the curveball,” Nettles said. “Got a lot of swings and misses and it was awesome.”


    The win did not come easy for the Patriots, as it found itself in several jams with Huntington having runners on base, but the defense was always able to find a way to shut down the Highlanders, and strand 11 runners. 


    “I couldn't have done it without my defense,” Nettles said. “We provided some well-played defense.”


    Huntington head coach John Dennison said that the team suffered from mental errors at the plate.


    “It's an approach problem,” Dennison said. “It's looking at what the count is, what the pitcher has to do versus what he's going to do, and sit on that pitch. And we kind of got ahead of ourselves a little bit. We got out front on the curveball and we're sitting two and other. There's no reason to swing at any spin in that situation. And it kind of put us behind a little bit.”


    The game was back and forth until the third inning when Jon Fala hit a one-out double and then scored on an RBI single into the gap in right field to score Luke Gordon to give the Patriots a 1-0 lead.


    The Patriots added two runs in the fifth inning on four consecutive hits, including a two-RBI single by Eli Smith that extended George Washington's lead to 3-0.


    George Washington shut the door in the bottom of the sixth, picking up three runs on four hits.


    George Washington dominated the series in the regular season, winning all three games by a combined score of 33-4. Davis said despite the dominance in the regular season, he knew that the Highlanders would be a tough challenge. 


    “They really, really made us sweat,” Davis said. “I had said the three previous times we beat them. I've told Coach Dennison, I feel like they're really, really dangerous despite the final score. And I think you saw that for, you know, five innings of this game, just as far as the pitching and the defense. We played really, really good defense behind Ty as well to preserve that no hitter. But, I think experience matters.”


    Despite losing some key pieces due to graduation, coach Dennison is confident in how the team will be next season.


    “We've got a great 8th grade group coming in and a good 7th grade group behind them,” Dennison said. “Our whole thing for this program is for these guys to lead the way for the next groups that are coming. What we have left on this team, I play a lot of sophomores. I play juniors. So coming back, it shouldn't be an inexperience.”


    With the loss, Huntington ends the season at 19-16, while George Washington places one step forward to capturing its first state baseball title, as it will play the winner of No. 4 Washington & No. 5 Jefferson at 5 p.m. on Friday in the Class AAAA semifinals 


HUNTINGTON 000 000 1 - 1 1 0 11

GEORGE WASHINGTON 001 023 0 - 6 10 0 6

Pitching: H: Leggs, Johnson (7), and Goodwin; GW: Nettles, Anderson (6), and Smith

Hitting: H: Ramey 1-3; GW: Gordon 3-3, R, 2 RBI , Nelson 2-3, 2B, RBI, Fala 2-3, 3 R, RBI, 2 2B


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