Havana capitalized on four walks and a pair of errors to score seven runs in the bottom of the fourth and the Ducks would end the West Prairie/Southeastern baseball season with an 8-1 victory over the Cyclones in the opening round of the Illinois High School Association Class 1A Regional at Abingdon last Thursday.
Havana, the No. 3 seed in the Camp Point Central “A” sub-sectional, had defeated the No. 6 seed Cyclones 11-5 back on Apr. 20 in Colchester.
But this time around it started off as a pitchers’ duel for the first three innings.
Freshman southpaw Tyson Carnes went toe-to-toe against Havana’s senior starter Carter Brooks as the game was scoreless until the fateful fourth when the Ducks would send 11 batters to the plate.
Carnes walked Havana’s Oscar Jones to lead off the inning before Aiden Pratt reached on an infield hit.
Carnes retired Owen Smith on a ground ball for the first out as both runners advanced into scoring position. The Ducks would take a 1-0 lead after Lukas Miller hit a sacrifice fly to center to drive in Jones.
Truman Towery followed with a two-out RBI double to bring home Pratt for a 2-0 lead.
A passed ball would advance Towery to third before Carnes issued consecutive walks to Jack Turner and Brooks to load the bases.
Carnes then walked Bradyn Willing to force in Towery to up the Havana lead to 3-0. Freshman Hudson Riebling came on in relief of Carnes and allowed an RBI single to Caleb McDaniel, but an error on leftfielder Mason Whitman allowed Turner to come around to score for a 5-0 advantage.
An error on WP/SE second baseman Holden Coplan would allow McDaniel and Willing to score for a 7-0 lead before Riebling struck out Pratt to end the inning.
Havana added another run in the bottom of the fifth on a Towery RBI single to make it 8-0 before the Cyclones finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the seventh.
Mason Whitman reached on an error by McDaniel at third and ended up at second base. Whitman would advance to third on a passed ball and came in to score on a ground out by Eli DeCounter.
Brooks retired Ivan Beck on a fly ball to right before Holden Coplan drilled a two-out single off Willing who came on in relief of Brooks.
But Willing struck out Braden Coplan to end the game and the season for the Cyclones who finished with a 12-13-1 record overall.
Carnes took the loss after giving up six runs (five earned) on only four hits, but walked five and struck out one.
Brooks was the winning pitcher for Havana (18-9-1) after allowing just one unearned run on three hits while striking out nine.
