Potential postseason foes Hurricane, Nitro hold nothing back in regular-season game

Many times in high school baseball, it's not so much who's on their game as it is who's on the mound.

Left-hander Sam Kmiec is one of the top pitchers for Class AAA state-ranked Hurricane.Advertiser
Many times in high school baseball, it's not so much who's on their game as it is who's on the mound.

Teams straddling the .500 mark can look like contenders when their top pitcher is working, and ranked teams can sometimes look, well, rank when one of their lesser arms is on the hill.

Which is why it was surprising last Wednesday when both Hurricane and Nitro, a pair of teams holding high spots in the Gazette's Class AAA state ratings, used key pitchers in their regular-season game at Lola Meeks Memorial Field.

Nitro won 10-5 to extend its win streak to 15 games, but coach Steve Pritchard raised a few eyebrows when he brought No. 2 pitcher Andrew Pickering on in relief of starter Clay Riggleman for the final three innings.

The Wildcats and Redskins could conceivably meet in the Class AAA Region 4 finals, and coaches many times are hesitant to show their best arms during the regular season to opponents they might face in postseason play.

Pritchard, in fact, said he wouldn't throw any of his top pitchers in last year's Powerhouse Invitational in Glenville because Nitro, if it advanced to the state tournament, might well have faced one of those teams at Appalachian Power Park.

So has Pritchard reconsidered his own rules?

"Well, we still may not have [shown our best],'' Pritchard said, meaning staff ace J.R. Bradley could get the call if it came down to Nitro-Hurricane again in the regionals.

"What it comes down to is this: Hall of Fame pitchers have their good stuff two out of five times. [Riggleman] has thrown tremendous all year for us. He just didn't have it [Wednesday] for whatever reason. The last inning, he didn't throw a first-pitch strike to anybody. It's hard to be up 7-1 to a rival conference team and have them come back and take the lead, so I just felt like let's go with Pick and shut them down and get out of here.''

Hurricane didn't hesitate to show perhaps its top pitcher, either, in the same game. Junior left-hander Sam Kmiec (3-2) could be considered the Redskins' ace.

Redskins coach Brian Sutphin likewise didn't waste much time rehashing his decision.

"It was just his turn to pitch,'' Sutphin said. "Nothing more, nothing less than that. Shoot, we've got a lot of guys who can pitch.

"Ultimately, during the course of a season, they're all just games preparing you for the postseason. With that being said, we threw four different guys [against Nitro], and that gets a lot of guys in a good situation to feel their way through.''

Arms aplenty

Herbert Hoover is another team that feels like it has more than one top pitcher.

Patrick Ryan (4-0) receives a lot of the Huskies' key starts, but Jamie Hurd (2-1) also gets more than his share.

So who's the ace?

"It's about an even race between Jamie and Patrick,'' said coach Brian Young. "They're right on even keel. It's a pretty good 1-2 right there. I don't consider either one of them ahead of anybody. I think they're both right there.''

Young said when the postseason comes, he'll play his aces however they're shuffled.

"Whoever's day it is in the rotation, that's the way we'll go with it,'' he said. "I have confidence in both of them against anybody we play.''

Rough and ready

Charleston Catholic coach Bill Mehle knew that when he put 16 AAA and AA teams on his schedule that his hitters would at times be overmatched.

Case in point: Thursday's 13-3 loss at Hoover when Ryan allowed the Class A Irish just four hits and struck out seven in a five-inning game. However, Mehle wasn't despondent at the outcome. He thinks it might pay off down the road.

"We're coming into a stretch of our schedule,'' Mehle said, "that will prepare us for the postseason. The quality of pitching we're going to see from here on out we expect to be pretty comparable [to facing teams' aces in the postseason].

"That's why we intentionally schedule against some of the better teams in double-A and some of the local teams in triple-A, so that we'll be ready to compete in the postseason.''

Line drives

Nitro has scheduled a May 1 game at West Jessamine (12-0), ranked No. 5 in the Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association poll. "We're kind of excited about that game,'' Pritchard said.

Showdown alert: A battle of ranked Logan County teams takes place tonight at 7 when Class A Man (9-4) visits Class AA Chapmanville (9-5).

Reach Rick Ryan at 304-348-5175 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

TEAM RECORDS
Pos-Team    W-L-T    Pct.

1. Nitro    17-1-0    .944

2. George Washington    16-4-0    .800

3. Sissonville    15-5-0    .750

4. Herbert Hoover    11-4-0    .733

5. Hurricane    15-6-0    .714

6. Buffalo    13-6-0    .684

7. Poca    10-6-1    .618

8. South Charleston    11-7-0    .611

8. St. Albans    11-7-0    .611

10. Charleston Catholic    10-7-0    .588

11. Capital    10-10-0    .500

12. Winfield    8-11-0    .421

13. Riverside    7-10-0    .412

HITTING

BATTING AVERAGE

(Minimum of 12 hits)

Player, School    AB    H    Avg.

Jason Lewis, Buffalo    37    21    .568

Tyler Godbey, Nitro    60    34    .557

J.R. Bradley, Nitro    53    29    .547

Thomas Taylor, HH    24    13    .542

Noah Blackhurst, Hurr.    65    35    .538

Jamie Hurd, Hoover    50    26    .520

Steven Lewis, Capital    48    25    .520

Patrick Ryan, Hoover    51    26    .510

Brad Carpenter, Siss.    26    13    .500

Darryl Deliere, Hoover    46    23    .500

Kirby Patterson, GW    61    30    .492

Zach Cloxton, Nitro    55    27    .491

Pat Lively, S. Chas.    50    24    .480

Brody Prudnick, CC    38    18    .473

Jack Hudson, S. Chas.    55    26    .472

Andrew Pickering, Nit.    49    23    .469

Tyler Fisher, S. Chas.    41    19    .463

Bo McKown, Catholic    54    25    .462

Korey Dunbar, Nitro    50    23    .460

Alex Levitan, GW    63    29    .460

Alex Bobinger, CC    55    25    .454

Tyler Payne, Hurricane    62    28    .452

David Beaver, Poca    56    25    .446

Clay Riggleman, Nit.    39    17    .436

Cory Bird, Hoover    37    16    .432

Greg Rose, Buffalo    44    19    .432

J.C. Morrison, Cap.    51    22    .431

Regan Patton, GW    65    28    .431

Chris Knapp, River.    54    23    .426

Patrick Huxley, CC    33    14    .424

Josh Clark, Winfield    57    24    .421

Tyler Burdette, Sisson.    55    23    .418

Tyler Hart, SA    29    12    .414

Nick Harrison, River.    46    19    .413

Tyler Ratliff, Riverside    51    21    .412

Sam Wood, Catholic    44    18    .409

Andy Hapney, SA    54    22    .407

Nelson McKown, CC    47    19    .404

Brandon Davis, HH    45    18    .400

Geovany Miranda, Cap.    50    20    .400

Luke Whiteside, SA    31    12    .387

Josh Burdette, SC    55    21    .382

Luca DiPiero, GW    55    21    .382

Barrett Arnold, Winfield    63    24    .381

Eric Stone, Capital    63    24    .381

Cam Lester, GW    50    19    .380

Evan Woods, Capital    52    19    .365

Josh Falbo, Hurricane    66    24    .364

Derek May, GW    44    16    .364

Wade Walters, SA    45    16    .356

Cody Ballard, Capital    65    23    .354

Cody Parkins, Buffalo    51    18    .353

Thad Carpenter, Cap.    57    20    .351

HOME RUNS

6 - J.R. Bradley, Nitro; 5 - Jason Lewis, Buffalo; 4 - Sam Kmiec, Hurricane; Geovany Miranda, Capital; 3 - Noah Blackhurst, Hurricane; Zach Cloxton, Nitro; Brandon Davis, Herbert Hoover; Korey Dunbar, Nitro; Josh Hudson, South Charleston; Sammy McCoy, St. Albans; Cody Parkins, Buffalo; Kirby Patterson, George Washington; Daniel Ramsey, Nitro; Wade Walters, St. Albans; 2 - David Beaver, Poca; Josh Clark, Winfield; Scottie Derrick, Sissonville; Josh Falbo, Hurricane; Jamie Hurd, Herbert Hoover; Alex Levitan, George Washington; Derek May, George Washington; Tyler Pate, Hurricane; Regan Patton, George Washington; Brody Prudnick, Charleston Catholic; Patrick Ryan, Herbert Hoover; Joe Wong, George Washington; Sam Wood, Charleston Catholic

RUNS BATTED IN

30 - J.R. Bradley, Nitro; 28 - Sam Kmiec, Hurricane; 25 - Korey Dunbar, Nitro; 24 - Regan Patton, George Washington; Wade Walters, St. Albans; 22 - Josh Hudson, South Charleston; Jason Lewis, Buffalo; Kirby Patterson, George Washington; Andrew Pickering, Nitro; 21 - Andy Hapney, St. Albans; Cody Parkins, Buffalo; Eric Stone, Capital; 20 - Noah Blackhurst, Hurricane; Tyler Godbey, Nitro; Tyler Payne, Hurricane; 19 - Zach Cloxton, Nitro; Josh Falbo, Hurricane; Alex Levitan, George Washington; Clay Riggleman, Nitro; 18 - Cody Ballard, Capital; Tyler Burdette, Sissonville; Brandon Davis, Herbert Hoover; Patrick Ryan, Herbert Hoover; Sam Wood, Charleston Catholic

STOLEN BASES

25 - Tyler Burdette, Sissonville; 23 - Bo McKown, Charleston Catholic; 17 - J.C. Morrison, Capital; 16 - Evan Woods, Capital; 15 - Colin Davis, Hurricane; Steven Lewis, Capital; 14 - Tyler Godbey, Nitro; 13 - Zach Cloxton, Nitro; Kenny Harper, Sissonville; 12 - Brad Carpenter, Sissonville; Tyler McClaskie, Capital; Clay Riggleman, Nitro; 11 - Jason Lewis, Buffalo; Andrew Pickering, Nitro; 10 - Caleb Arthur, Poca; Taylor Farris, Charleston Catholic; Chris Knapp, Riverside; Patrick Ryan, Herbert Hoover; Thomas Taylor, Herbert Hoover

PITCHING

WINS

6-2 - Jameson Landers, Sissonville; 5-0 - Kyle Huffman, George Washington; Andrew Pickering, Nitro; 4-0 - J.R. Bradley, Nitro; Derek May, George Washington; Patrick Ryan, Herbert Hoover; Clay Riggleman, Nitro; 4-1 - Cody Ballard, Capital; Jason Lewis, Buffalo; 4-4 - Joe Mounts, George Washington; 3-0 - David Beaver, Poca; Calvin Bench, St. Albans; Noah Blackhurst, Hurricane; Tyler Burdette, Sissonville; 3-1 - Alex Bobinger, Charleston Catholic; Jordan Chevalier, Sissonville; Chris Knapp, Riverside; Pat Lively, South Charleston

STRIKEOUTS

66 - Jameson Landers, Sissonville (55 innings pitched); 58 - Jason Lewis, Buffalo (252/3 IP); 54 - Joe Beane, Capital (28 IP); 51 - Jamie Hurd, Herbert Hoover (331/3 IP); 50 - Patrick Ryan, Herbert Hoover (282/3 IP); 47 - Andrew Pickering, Nitro (272/3 IP); 43 - Greg Wright, South Charleston (34 IP); 42 - Sam Kmiec, Hurricane (301/3 IP); 40 - Clay Riggleman, Nitro (231/3 IP); 39 - Taylor Humphrey, Poca (26 IP); Pat Lively, South Charleston (32 IP); Derek May, George Washington (381/3 IP); 35 - Tyler Burdette, Sissonville (311/3 IP); Matt McClanahan, Poca (242/3 IP); 33 - Alex Bobinger, Charleston Catholic (212/3 IP); J.R. Bradley, Nitro (24 IP); Joe Mounts, George Washington (321/3 IP); 31 - David Beaver, Poca (272/3 IP); Andy Hapney, St. Albans (322/3 IP); 30 - Calvin Bench, St. Albans (262/3 IP); Tyler Kincaid, Winfield (23 IP)

EARNED RUN AVERAGE

(Minimum of 16 innings pitched)

0.55 - Jason Lewis, Buffalo (252/3 IP); 0.58 - J.R. Bradley, Nitro (24 IP); 0.76 - Andrew Pickering, Nitro (272/3 IP); 0.89 - Tyler Burdette, Sissonville (311/3 IP); Jameson Landers, Sissonville (55 IP); 1.42 - Greg Rose, Buffalo (192/3 IP); 1.57 - Clay Riggleman, Nitro (231/3 IP); 1.62 - Alex Bobinger, Charleston Catholic (212/3 IP); 1.95 - David Beaver, Poca (272/3 IP); 2.08 - Sam Kmiec, Hurricane (301/3 IP); 2.18 - Sam Wood, Charleston Catholic (16 IP); 2.19 - Drew Lawrence, Hurricane (16 IP); 2.21 - Kyle Huffman, George Washington (312/3 IP); 2.39 - Ryan Baldwin, Sissonville (261/3 IP); 2.55 - Joe Wong, George Washington (242/3 IP); 2.60 - Joe Mounts, George Washington (321/3 IP); 2.84 - Pat Lively, South Charleston (32 IP); 2.99 - Josh Hudson, South Charleston (35 IP)

NOTE: Includes only players from Kanawha and Putnam counties. Figures provided by schools. Does not include Monday's games.