No. 3 Charles Henderson picks up wins against Stanhope Elmore and Providence Christian
Published 11:33 pm Saturday, March 16, 2019
- Photo/Dan Smith CHHS freshman righty Press Jefcoat allowed no runs in relief to earn the win against Stanhope Elmore Saturday
Press Jefcoat pitched five innings of shutout baseball to defeat Stanhope Elmore and Cole McWhorter blasted a three-run, walk-off home run in the second game against Providence Christian as Charles Henderson High earned two big come-from-behind wins Saturday at Hogan’s Hole in Troy.
The Trojans, ranked No. 3 in Class 5A, overcame a 7-0 deficit to beat Stanhope Elmore 18-7 in the first game and came from behind to defeat Providence 6-4 in the nightcap.
The two wins improve CHHS to 14-3 on the year, as the Trojans have won 10 in a row and 13 of their last 14 games.
“To battle like that and compete and find a way to win in both games, I can’t say enough about our team,” said CHHS Head Coach Matt Whitton. “They 100-percent believe in what we have been doing over the last couple of weeks, and it is showing. We were down and our guys never felt like they were down. They never counted themselves out and they never thought they were going to lose a game today.”
Stanhope jumped out to a big 7-0 lead in the top of the first inning of the first game, with Jefcoat coming on in relief to put out the fire.
CHHS tacked on three runs in the bottom of the first as Chance Pollard and Brock Huner walked, Lawson Scarbrough and McWhorter singled to cut the lead to 7-3.
The Trojans erupted for 11 runs in the bottom of the second inning with J.B. Sanders, Huner, Keonte Brantley, Caden Bryan, Jaylen Deveridge and Pollard all getting big hits for a 14-7 lead.
Bryan and Sanders walked in the third, Pollard hit a three-run homer, and Huner tripled and later scored for the 18-7 lead.
Jefcoat kept the Mustangs off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game, allowing no runs on only two hits and striking out three to earn his first high school varsity win.
In the first game CHHS was led at the plate by Pollard, Huner, Brantley and Sanders with two hits each while Scarbrough, McWhorter, Walker Stallworth, Bryan and Deveridge had one hit apiece.
In the second game Providence Christian of Dothan, ranked No. 1 in Class 3A, took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning to again put the Trojans in a hole.
CHHS got one run back in the bottom half when Pollard walked and scored on a fielder’s choice ground-out by Scarbrough.
Providence went up 4-1 in the second but CHHS got one run in the third when Huner homered to right-center field, and in the fifth Huner walked and scored on a ground out by McWhorter to cut the lead to 4-3.
Bryan and Jackson Giles worked on the mound for CHHS, with Giles pitching the final 2 and two-thirds innings, allowing no runs on no hits while striking out two.
Huner singled to lead off the bottom of the seventh, Scarbrough walked, and then McWhorter homered to left-center for the walk-off, 6-4 win.
Huner, Scarbrough and McWhorter had two hits each for CHHS while Stallworth, Sanders and Darryl Lee had one hit each.
“I told our coaches in the sixth inning that this was a really, really good game,” said Coach Whitton. “We were down 4-2 but it did not feel like we were down. Our guys never felt like they were down. It was just a game you liked being a part of. We needed that for us. We needed to see if we could win a really tough game against a really good opponent and we did.”
The Trojans are at home Tuesday to open Class 5A, Area 3 play against Rehobeth, and are on the road at Rehobeth on Thursday.