Cameron collects 20th victory, rallying past Trinity, 7-3

GRANVILLE, W.Va. — Trailing by a run entering the top of the seventh inning, Cameron sent nine batters to the plate in a five-run rally to defeat Trinity, 7-3 in a game played at Kendrick Family Ballpark.

Just two days after the No. 5 Dragons defeated the No. 10 Warriors, 9-6 in the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference 1A Championship game, Cameron (20-5) won their 14th consecutive game against an in-state opponent.

“I didn’t know we would have this much success, but we are having success,” said Cameron head coach Adam Angel. “I was hoping it would be this way.”

The Dragons scored a run in the top of the first inning, but they needed to make an unexpected change in their lineup. No. 3 batter and pitcher Hunter Evans drove Soier Reed home with an RBI single. However, Evans was injured on the basepaths, leaving Zayde Long a short time to get ready to enter the game and pitch.

“He wasn’t supposed to start. The guy that was starting, Hunter Evans, pulled a hammy going into second base in the first inning. Then it was, ‘Zayde, go throw’. I put him in those situations twice, once last year in the regional and then today. When he doesn’t have time to think, he executes. He does well.”

Long allowed three runs in six innings. He surrendered five hits and struck out eleven batters.

Trinity took the lead in the bottom of the first inning. Back-to-back doubles from Nathan Adams and Brady Hutson tied the game at 1. Hutson later scored on a sacrifice fly from Ethan Hartley.

The teams traded runs in the fifth inning, giving a Trinity a 3-2 lead entering the seventh inning. Cameron needed just two batters to even the score in the seventh. Reed’s run-scoring single sent Anthony Bellanco to the plate. The next batter, pinch hitter Bryer Blake, attacked the first pitch he saw, and a well-struck single to left field allowed Reed to score, giving Cameron their first lead since the opening frame at 4-3.

“Between myself and the first base coach, we were kind of talking back and forth without anybody knowing whether we were going to bunt or hit. I knew if Bryer got on, I was going to sub in the runner, reenter the runner to run. I figured if he gets ahold of one, he hits it hard and he gets the job done. I gave him a chance to hit and he gets a hit. Then we started rallying the troops from there.”

The Dragons would tack on three more runs in the seventh and Ike Yoho picked up the final three outs in the bottom of the seventh to end the game.

Both teams substituted players into the game frequently as a combined 30 players entered the contest with the opportunity to play at the home of the WVU Mountaineers.

“I talked to Coach Wes [Hopkins] and I was like, ‘Hey this is a perfect time’. I know regionals are coming up and regional seeding matters and the state seeding is going to matter. But I told him, ‘Especially here at this facility, I want to try to get an experience for all of the kids’. He thought the same way. It was kind of hard to navigate getting 20 kids in the game.”

Reed and Kason Angel each scored two runs for the Dragons. Talen Brown led Cameron with three hits while Angel and Brennan Droppleman each added two hits.

Parker Hopkins pitched into the seventh inning for Trinity (9-8). He struck out seven batters. Adams had two hits for TCS.