Junction City upends Buckaroos to win district
SMACKOVER Pitching on a big stage can be overwhelming for some, but seemingly not for Junction City’s Keelan Hodge.
On Friday night, the freshman fired a three-hitter and struck out 10 to outduel Smackover ace Beau Burson, as the Dragons topped the Bucks 4-1 to win the 8-3A District Tournament.
Joe Lowe supplied the offense, belting a tworun homer to highlight a threerun third that gave
Hodge a lead h e would not relinquish.
The win gives the Dragons (22-9) the No. 1 seed from the 8-3A for next week’s 4-3A Regional Tournament, which will be hosted by Smackover.
The Dragons will face Centerpoint, the No. 4 seed from the 7-3A, at 3 p.m.
The Bucks (16-14) are the No. 2 seed will take on No. 3 seed Fouke at 12:30 p.m.
Hodge, who walked four, has been terrific in his last three starts, picking up a pair of complete-game wins at Smackover along with a win at Parkers Chapel earlier this week.
In 18 innings, the righthander has struck out 23 batters while allowing just nine hits and five runs with 10 walks.
“We knew it would be a low-scoring game against Burson, and Keelan did his job and threw strikes,” said Junction City coach Joe Paul Hammett. “We played good defense behind him.”
Hodge allowed a first-inning run for the the third straight outing, but was outstanding the rest of the way.
The freshman pitched out of a first-and-third, one-out jam in the second, and an infield single by Weston Smith in the third.
After Smith’s single, Hodge retired 10 straight batters until running into trouble in the seventh.
McKnight, who was 2-for-3, broke Hodge’s string of batters retired with a leadoff single and took second on Nick Jennings’ ground out to shortstop.
Hodge fanned Cade Schibler for the second out, but backto-back walks to Cody Smith and Nick Impson loaded the bases.
However, Hodge struck out Tucker Evans to end the game.
“Each time out toward the latter half of the season, he’s gotten better and better with his control,” Hammett said of his freshman. “He works hard, and he’s played and pitched a lot of baseball. He likes those situations, and the sky is the limit for him if he keeps working.”
The Bucks gave Burson an early lead with their aforementioned run in the first.
With one out, Weston Smith walked, and one out later, McKnight laced a single to right that was mishandled in the outfield, allowing Smith to score from first.
Burson got off to fast start, retiring seven of the first eight batters he faced, but two errors in the third opened the floodgates for the Dragons.
With one out, Burson struck out Charles Hoof, but the third strike was dropped, and the throw to first sailed down the right-field line for a twobase error.
Robbie Roberson, who went 2-for-3 in the game, laced a single to right, and Hoof scored when the ball was misplayed for the inning’s second error.
Lowe then made the Bucks pay dearly for those mistakes by crushing Burson’s 1-0 pitch over the fence in left for a two-run homer that gave the Dragons a 3-1 lead.
“The first time up, Joe poked his bat out there, and I said, ‘If you’re going to swing Joe, swing,’” Hammett said with a laugh. “He did swing, and I told Joe, ‘That’s how you swing.’ He hit it on the nose just right, and it definitely turned the momentum towards us.”
Junction City scored their final run in the fourth.
Brock McGoogan led off with a single, but was erased from the basepaths on Bryce Ware’s fielder’s choice.
Clay Jolley followed with a base hit to right-center to put runners at first and second, and Ware advanced to third on Jack Smith’s fly out to right.
With runners now at the corners with two outs, Jolley was able to get into a rundown just long enough for Ware to score from third.
Burson finished with a six-hitter to take the loss. He walked one and struck out eight.
“My hat’s off to Junction and the Hodge kid,” said Smackover coach B.J. Greene. “He did a great job. That’s two outings in a row against us that he’s kept us off-balance.
“Early, we put him in some situations, but we made some silly baserunning mistakes that you just can’t make against a team like Junction. They did everything right tonight. They hit the ball when they needed to. We made two errors to put Joe Lowe in that situation with the two-run home run, but that’s baseball. That’s why you play. I’m proud of our kids.”