The Happy Valley Warriors got their season going with a win Tuesday as they hosted Cloudland to Cannon-Gouge Park.
At the mound, Warriors Hayden Holtsclaw garnered the win as he retired nine Cloudland batters during Happy Valley’s 12-2 win.
“Hayden Holtsclaw did a great job for us tonight,” said Happy Valley head coach Brad Hill. “We knew coming into the game that walks, and errors would hurt us, and we knew Hayden was going to pound the zone for us.”
In the top of the first, the Highlanders would get Mark Tester to third base after a single from Cloudland’s Brayden Christman before HV’s Holtsclaw had back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the inning.
The Highlanders held the Warriors off the scoreboard with the Cloudland infield making plays. Highlanders Dillion Johnson had two catches for outs, one of which was a leaping snag to keep a Warrior batter off base.
Happy Valley got on board in the third with three runs as Warriors Bryce Carter, who got on base with a blistering line drive single to left field, Holtsclaw, and Jacob Absher all scored in the inning. HV’s Will Hampton and Absher both had RBI singles in the frame.
The Warriors would take advantage of some Cloudland pitching woes in the third and fourth innings, scoring four runs off of walks.
The Highlanders got on board in the top of the fifth as Cloudland eighth-grader Collin Morgan blasted a two-run homer down the first baseline cutting the Warriors’ lead to 7-2 heading into the bottom of the fifth.
“He is only an eighth-grader, so he really stepped up,” said Cloudland head coach Cory Rhodes. “He knew a fastball was coming and he got a piece of it.”
The Warriors posted five runs in the fifth with Happy Valley’s Landon Morefield connecting on a two-RBI double in the inning. Happy Valley’s Kevin Whitaker also had an RBI in the frame.
The Warriors will be at South Greene today while Cloudland heads to Johnson County.