By Concepcion Ledezma Riverbend News
With a berth to the baseball state final four on the line, Hamilton County High School (HCHS) coach Chris Howard went back to the well in the form of sophomore left hander Trayson Rogers.
Rogers, a breaking ball specialist, had already been a thorn in the flesh of district rival Union County (UC), defeating the once number one state-ranked Tigers twice. He did it a third time, turning in his gutsiest start in a 6-3 Hamilton County victory, sending the Trojans to Fort Myers, where they will take on Newberry in the FHSAA Class 1A state semifinal. The game will be held on Wednesday, May 19, at 7 p.m.
The Trojans will take an 18-8 record into the final four, the second time in 43 years the school has made it this far into the postseason. Union County ends its season at 21-5.
Hamilton County was last in the final four in 2015.
In their head-to-head match-up against Union County, Hamilton prevailed 3-1, with all three victories coming with Rogers (3-1) as the starting pitcher; consequently, all three of Rogers' victories this season came against UC.
"I had to sleep on it [about deciding who to pitch]" Coach Chris Howard said. "Trayson already had done it twice, so I figured that if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Rogers' first win against UC broke the Tigers' undefeated record after a 15-0 start; the second victory came in the district title game at Union County, forcing UC to travel three hours in its regional playoff opener. This time, the Region 1 title was on the line in the Tuesday, May 11 showdown.
"Trayson is a sophomore who played like a senior," catcher and team captain Chandler Howard said. "He was composed. And even a little tired, he came up with the big pitches when he had to. This was a pressure game, and he handled it like a senior."
Hamilton County squeezed all it could out of Rogers, who threw 95 pitches and left the game to a round of applause from the capacity crowd at HCHS with two outs in the sixth inning.
"I felt good to feel appreciated," Rogers said. "But at the same time, I had plenty of help from our defense."
But the Trojans weren't out of the woods just yet. Though the Trojans were leading 4-1, UC threatened with two runners on base. HCHS senior Caleb Deas had to battle to turn out the fire, striking out UC's Manny Covey on the eighth pitch on a three to two count.
Caleb pitched the rest of the way as the Trojans padded their lead to 6-1 in their final turn at bat in the sixth. Tmoyiron Paul provided a back-breaking bases-loaded, two-run single for the five-run lead after six.
UC closed the gap, scoring two runs on an RBI triple and a ground-out in the seventh before Paul, from his shortstop position, fielded a hard grounder off his chest then made the throw to first base for the assist on the putout. The on-field celebration got underway.
"I feel we didn't play well enough to win, but give Hamilton County credit," Union County coach Travis Rimes said. "We made errors at crucial times . . . and I still don't know why we have a hard time hitting that left hander. We played another left hander recently and had 17 hits from him, but we just couldn't figure [Rogers] out."
The game began as a pitching duo between Rogers (three hits, five strikeouts, five walks) and UC's Whip Davis (four hits, five strikeouts, four walks).
Union County broke down first. In the third inning, two errors in one play resulted in Hamilton County's first run, scoring Jaxon Smith (walk) from third base. Howard followed with an RBI on a ground-out to second. Paul then singled to score Devin Cherry (who reached on an error) for the Trojans' 3-0 lead after three innings.
The opposing pitchers were forced to deal with trouble from that point on. From the fourth to the sixth, Rogers was forced to dig in as the Tigers were able to put at least two base runners in each inning. Rogers got plenty of help from his fielders, including Smith, who was good on all of his seven chances from second base.
Howard was also deadly from behind the plate, going two for two throwing out base stealers when the game was still in doubt.
The Trojans offense loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth. Although HCHS managed to produce one run, on a two-out RBI single to center by senior David Gause, it later proved to be a crucial insurance score to make it 4-0.
"I just wanted to be able to make good contact," said Gause, who besides batting .329 from the number seven spot, is also ranked number 10 in his 2021 graduating class. "Even though we only got that one run, it fired us up."
The visitors finally broke Hamilton County's shutout bid when UC drew a hit batsman, a walk and a single out of a tiring Rogers. A ground-out to second accounted for the only run before Deas was sent in to relieve Rogers.
Paul led the Hamilton County offense, going two for three at the plate with three runs batted in; he also had two stolen bases.
The Trojans collected six hits to the Tigers' five. HCHS had no errors while Union County committed three errors.