The Humansville Tigers used three pitchers to no-hit the Everton Tigers on Friday night. Humansville scored 16 runs in the five inning rout. Everton was playing with a weakened squad due to a scheduling conflict.
“We are missing two seniors on this game, with some school events,” said Everton coach Jon Flowers. “That’s two starting infield positions and probably our best catcher; those are our two captains, as well. You have to give Humansville credit, they’re a tough team, they have some really good defense, good hitting and good pitching. We’ve seen a lot of good baseball teams and they are right up there with the good ones we’ve seen this year.”
Humansville junior Hunter Swearingin started the no-hitter by pitching the first two innings, striking out four. In Humansville’s two innings, they scored four in the first and ten in the second.
“I didn’t know how good Everton was because it’s been two years since we’ve played them,” said Swearingin. “I just came out here and threw my game. My defense is very important. I try to throw where they will hit it, just depending on the batter, if they’re good I’ll try to throw it where they hit a bad ball. It’s always good when the defense is solid back there.”
Humansville head coach Ben Phillips decided to get some other pitchers some work and took Swearingin out at the beginning of the third inning. Freshman Freddie Wieder pitched the third and fourth innings, allowing no hits and striking out three. Wieder was also a key factor at the plate, going 4-4 with four RBIs and the first homerun of his career. The homerun was not traditional in that it was of the inside-the-park variety. Wieder roped a double to the outfield and as he reached second decided to stretch it to a triple. When the coach saw the outfielders bobble the relay, he sent the speedy freshman home.
“That was my first homerun in high school,” said Wieder. “I was nervous at the beginning of the season but now I’m starting to feel more comfortable at the plate.”
After Wieder’s two innings, senior Koby White pitched the fifth inning. He walked two and gave up no hits, keeping the no-hitter intact. Humansville plated two runs in the bottom of the third to give them the 16-0 win.
Humansville committed one error on the night while Everton made eight.
“That’s one thing we’ve been trying to work on with our outfield is what to do in different situations, how to properly field it,” said Flowers. “Baseball at Everton, we’re trying to get it more in the forefront but it’s been more secondary than it has primary for a lot of these kids. It’s something to do in the springtime. We’re working on it and they are definitely getting there. We do have a lot of young players. There are games we can hang with teams like this and games we let go. Today was a let it go.”
Even though the game was lopsided, Phillips still wanted his team to play fundamentally strong.
“We threw our All-State pitcher, Hunter Swearingin, then we threw a couple guys who haven’t had a lot of innings,” said Phillips. “They did fine, they managed to keep the ball down and that’s all you’ve got to do against a weaker hitting team, just keep the ball down. After two bad losses last week, we needed a game like tonight for a big confidence boost. In a game like this you work on the fundamentals: fundamentals of defense, fundamentals of hitting, fundamentals of pitching, and make sure you stick to those.”
Everton 0 Humansville 16
Everton 000 00 — 0
Humansville 4(10)2 0X — 16
