Clinton beats Hanahan 5-4 to win AAA baseball state championship
Red Devils deliver school with first baseball title since 1961
Clinton – It wasn’t’ as easy as the first game of the series, but Clinton High School still won the second game of the AAA baseball state championship series on Tuesday on its home field.
After going on the road on Saturday to beat Hanahan 17-3 in the opener, the Red Devils scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth inning on Tuesday for a 5-4 victory that gave the school its first baseball state title since 1961.
“These young men, what they brought every day means so much to me,” said CHS head coach Sean McCarthy, whose team finished the year with a 26-3 record. “They were committed to the process. This group from Day 1 really pushed each other hard, held each other accountable for everything.”
It looked as though Clinton might make quick work of the Hawks on Tuesday as well, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning. However, HHS had other things in mind. Hanahan, which finished the year at 26-9, scored three runs in the second and tied the game in the fourth.
That set the stage for the Red Devils to score the eventual winning run in the sixth.
Justin Copeland reached on a walk after falling behind 0-2 in the count. McCarthy then called for Caleb Taylor to bunt, and he pushed the ball down the third base line. Taylor was thrown out by the Hawks third baseman, but third base was left uncovered. Seeing that, the speedy Copeland get coming. The HHS shortstop was running in stride with Copeland and the ball was thrown to him while he was on the move. The ball got away and Copeland came all the way around to make it 5-4.
“It was just a bunt and run,” McCarthy said. “He came up and threw to first and got the out, but no one covered third. They tried to run the shortstop with my guy in full stride and threw the ball away.
“They outhit us, but we found a way to win.”
Left-handed pitcher Carson Glenn pitched the final three innings to get the win. Hanahan put runners on the corners with one out before Glenn got a strikeout and a groundout to end the game.
It was the fifth win in the playoffs for Glenn. The Red Devils swept their eight playoff games, winning both the district and the upper state tournaments in 3-game sweeps before taking two from Hanahan.
“We’ve used him as a starter and a reliever,” McCarthy said of Glenn, who started and won the opening game as well. “He’s really come up big for us.”
McCarthy said he wasn’t concerned his team would take things for granted after going on the road and winning in such easy fashion.
“One thing about this group is what it went through last season,” McCarthy, whose team won 27 last year’s but came up short in the upper state tournament. “We went and beat Powdersville, but they came back to beat us. They had that experience and it really focused them today and let them be grounded the whole time. They were focused and were able to control their emotions today.”
The Red Devils used three walks, a balk, a hit batsman and two singles for their four runs. Wilson Wages had two runs batted in for Clinton, which finished the season with 18 straight victories.
Brayden Joseph had an RBI single and Camden Kackley had a 2-run single to make it 4-3. Joseph had an RBI groundout to tie the game.
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