Cavaliers win Tony Causby Classic for 2nd straight year

Three stellar pitching performances highlighted the past week for the East Burke baseball team, and the Cavaliers also used timely hitting and solid defense to capture their second consecutive Tony Causby Classic title during the eighth annual tournament at Patton High School.

EB defeated Freedom by an 11-1 final in Wednesday night’s championship game after previously earning an 8-2 victory over Erwin on Monday and a 1-0 win over R-S Central on Tuesday.

“There’s not a lot of trophies in the trophy case for baseball at East Burke, so to be able to put another one in there is a big deal, and this is a good tournament with some good teams,” EB coach Allen Wittenberg said. “For us to be able to get right and come here and win it, it means a lot. It’s well-run and it’s just a great place to be. I’m glad we’ve been successful the last two years.”

Junior left-hander Colt Butcher pitched all seven innings for EB (8-7, 4-4 Western Piedmont 3A/4A Conf.) against the Patriots (7-10, 0-6 Northwestern 6A/7A Conf.), allowing just one hit while striking out 15, walking one, and hitting a batter. His performance came on the heels of complete-game efforts from Cavalier right-handers Maddox Mosteller (5 H, BB, HBP, 9 K) and Jonas Weidner (3 H, BB, 8 K) — the latter of whom was named tournament MVP — on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

“We have leaned on those three guys all year long consistently, and I would’ve never dreamed that we’d come in here and get three complete games in three days,” said Wittenberg. “All three of them were really efficient with their pitch counts. The thing that helped us in this tournament too was we didn’t make mistakes behind them that cost them extra pitches, and that’s a big deal. We talk about that all the time, we’ve got to make plays so our pitchers can stay in the game and pitch, and we did a good job of that this week.”

EB took the lead in the top of the first inning on Wednesday, with Weidner drawing a four-pitch walk to begin the game and eventually scoring on a two-out single from Butcher. The Cavs then made it 2-0 when Mosteller crossed the plate for the first of four times on a balk later in the frame.

After Freedom’s Trenton Walker cut the deficit in half by scoring on a wild pitch in the bottom of the third, EB responded with six runs in the fourth via a throwing error that scored Johnny Powell, a balk that plated Weidner, a three-run double from Cayson Mooneyham, and a single from Clemson Watts that scored Mooneyham.

The Cavs also scored twice in the fifth thanks to a ground-rule double from Mosteller that brought in Weidner and a single from Rhett Houston (run) that scored Mosteller, who added a solo home run in the seventh to complete the scoring.

Weidner singled, walked three times, and stole three bases, with Nathan Fortenberry also stealing a base. And in addition to the aforementioned hits, EB also received infield singles from Easton Wilson, Fortenberry, and Mooneyham.

“I knew I had my team behind me, that I had my team’s back and they had my back, and I just felt comfortable out there on the mound,” said Butcher, who struck out four straight batters on two occasions and retired the final 11 hitters he faced after the Patriots’ Jake Moretz singled to right with one out in the fourth. “I couldn’t have done it without them.”

“I think that’s probably one of the best starts that he’s had,” added Wittenberg. “He was really aggressive, he attacked the strike zone, and he had command of a lot of his stuff. … He just was being really aggressive and challenging them to hit it, and he came out on top of that deal tonight.”

EB previously totaled 10 hits against Erwin, getting three apiece from Houston (two doubles, single, two RBIs, two runs) and Weidner (three singles, RBI, two runs, SB) and one each from Colton Ward (triple, RBI, run), Mooneyham (single, RBI, run, two SB), Butcher (single, RBI), and Fortenberry (single).

The Cavs then registered eight hits against R-S, with Weidner scoring the game’s only run in the top of the first after singling, advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt from Ward, moving to third on a base hit from Mosteller, and crossing the plate on a single from Houston. Weidner also doubled later in the contest, while Mosteller added another single and EB also received singles from Ward, Butcher, and Wilson.

Freedom didn’t report any individual statistics from Tuesday’s 10-7 victory over Draughn, which got doubles from Caden Barker (two RBIs, run) and Tyler Lange (RBI, run) to go with singles from Chase Yambor (RBI, run) and Ian Meadows (two runs). However, stats were available from the Patriots’ 7-6 win over Patton on Monday, when Freedom scored six runs in the top of the seventh to take a 7-4 lead before escaping with a one-run triumph.

Will Russ (two singles, two RBIs, run), Brooks Snipes (two singles, RBI, two runs), Kaden Michaels (single, RBI, run), Moretz (single, RBI, SB), Puckett Hudson (double, RBI), and Carson Wells (single, run) were the Patriots’ offensive standouts against Patton, while relievers Colby Lowman (IP, 2 R, H, BB, 2 K) and Alex Wall (IP, 0 ER, H, 2 K) earned the win and the save, respectively, after a strong start from Michaels (5 IP, ER, H, 5 BB, 8 K).

The Wildcats preceded the loss to Freedom with a 3-2 victory over McDowell on Monday in a game that saw Yambor record three singles, an RBI, and a run scored to go with two singles each from Lange (RBI), Barker, and Liam Dalmas and one single from Nolan Russ (run). Furthermore, Nolan Ballard allowed two runs on six hits in a complete-game effort during which he struck out five and worked around one walk and four hit batsmen.

Draughn (2-13, 0-8 WPC) also faced R-S in the third-place game on Wednesday, falling 9-3 despite getting two hits from both Yambor (double, single, run, SB) and Reagan Gragg (two singles) as well as singles from Barker (RBI, run), Meadows (RBI), Lange, and Ballard.

Patton right-hander Cohen Christian (6 IP, ER, 4 H, 10 K) broke the program’s career record for strikeouts in the first inning against Freedom as he finished the game with 245 punchouts in his prep career, and he needs 12 more strikeouts to surpass the Panthers’ single-season record of 86.

Also on Monday, Patton’s Trevor Throneburg (two RBIs, run) homered for the fourth time in five games, with other hits for the Panthers coming via doubles from Christian and Gavin Johnson and a single from Laine Barrier (run).

The Panthers (12-5, 6-2 WPC) bounced back from the loss to Freedom with victories over McDowell and Erwin, defeating the Titans by a 4-1 final on Tuesday before topping the Warriors by an 8-6 score in Wednesday’s fifth-place game.

Landry Duvall (7 IP, R, 7 H, HBP, 5 K; double, single, two RBIs) led the way both on the mound and at the plate against McDowell, while other offensive contributors included Wyatt Hullette (two singles, RBI, run), Brady Davis (double, single, run), Throneburg (single, run), Jack Hester (single, run), and Christian (single).

And in the win over Erwin, Patton received two hits each from Christian (triple, single, three RBIs, run), Barrier (two singles, RBI, two runs), Duvall (double, single, RBI), and River McCrary (double, single, run) to go with singles from Hullette (RBI, run), Davis (run), and Hester (run). In addition, Davis (6 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 5 BB, 2 HBP, 6 K) was the winning pitcher and Landon Harris struck out the only two batters he faced to notch the save.

All four Burke County squads were in action on April 2 as well, with Patton collecting a 12-7 win at West Caldwell, EB losing by a 5-2 final against R-S in Icard, Draughn falling by a 4-1 score at Hibriten, and Freedom losing by an 11-1 final in six innings at Watauga.

Patton received three singles, four RBIs, and two runs scored from Hullette against West Caldwell to go with a double, two singles, and three runs scored from Davis, while Christian (triple, RBI, three runs, SB), Throneburg (single, RBI, run), Johnson (single, RBI), McCrary (single, two runs), and Duvall (single, RBI) — the latter of whom was also the winning pitcher thanks to five innings of three-hit ball during which he allowed an unearned run with four strikeouts and two walks — also producing at the plate.

EB didn’t report any offensive stats from last week’s game, although both Butcher (5 2/3 IP) and Weidner (1 1/3 IP) were effective on the mound, while Draughn outhit Hibriten 7-4 behind two singles apiece from Gragg (run) and Wyatt Bonorden, a double from Ballard, and singles from Barker and Dalmas. Additionally, Freedom was led by Zaydrin Hausley (two singles, SB), Michaels (single, run, SB), and Hudson (single) in the loss to Watauga.