By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The New Heights Christian baseball team enjoyed a celebration 20 years in the making on Tuesday evening at Purdy.
The Cougars jumped out to a 4-0 lead and took a 9-4 advantage into the sixth inning before fending off the host Eagles for a 9-8 victory in the Class 2 District 12 championship game to earn the program’s first-ever district title.
“We knew it was going to be tough,” said New Heights coach Phillip Jordan. “Purdy’s an amazing team. Coach (Joshua) Hughes has done a great job and we’ve struggled to beat them. First time beating them in program history earlier in the year and then obviously today. A 9-4 lead wasn’t comfortable. I knew they were going to give everything they had and compete. We talk about being aggressive, going out and trying to take early leads and force teams to play under pressure and I thought we did that tonight. We struggled a little bit at times but when the rubber hit the road we made the plays we needed to make.”
New Heights (18-6) advances to face Miller (21-5) in the sectional round on May 26.
The Cougars scored early and often against top-seeded Purdy on Tuesday. New Heights, which entered as the second seed, took a 1-0 lead in the first when senior Liam Nelson doubled and later scored on a groundout by senior Joshua Anderson.
They added three more runs in the third. Junior Lincoln Smith led off with a walk, junior Owen Horton singled and then senior Jayce Walker tripled over the right fielder to plate two runs. Senior Smoke Ezell drove in a fourth with a groundout with runners at second and third.
Purdy made it 4-1 in the bottom half of the inning after sophomore Jackson Lee reached on a fielder’s choice, advanced on a Damon Mahurin single and then scored on a throwing error after junior Easten Goetz bunted.
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The Eagles then tied the game in the fourth inning. Freshman Jesus Aldaba singled, junior Simon Walker was hit by a pitch and then junior Aldo Perez was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. After a strikeout, Mahurin came to the plate and then saw three pitches with two strikes––he took one for a ball and fouled off the next two before launching a 3-2 pitch to deep right for a bases-clearing double.
The Cougars quickly answered. In the fifth, Walker singled, Nelson was hit by a pitch and then Anderson doubled to left to make it 6-4. Senior Philip Thompson later doubled in another run before the inning was over.
New Heights added two more insurance runs in the sixth, both with two outs. Nelson and Anderson each singled and Ezell walked to load the bases for sophomore Broderick Burns, who lined a single to right to make it 9-4.
As it turned out, the Cougars needed every one of those runs.
Purdy scored four times in the bottom of the sixth––Aldaba singled, Walker walked and freshman Grady Mahurin walked to load the bases. Lee got into a full count and then fouled off two pitches before hitting a grounder to third and beating out the throw for a single that scored 1.
Goetz sacrifice bunted to make it 9-6, another run scored on a wild pitch, and then senior William Henderson hit a hard single to the left side to score another and make it 9-8.
Burns, who took over pitching duties for New Heights earlier in the sixth, finally escaped with a strikeout looking on a breaking ball and then retired the Eagles in order in the seventh to seal it.
“I think we’re playing good baseball,” Jordan said. “We’ve been pretty consistent all year but I think coming into this district tournament we were just confident. We felt like we were one of the best teams in this district and I believe in my guys and I think they have continued to prove that they can play with anyone.”
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Purdy (17-11) has been a resilient team all year, Hughes said.
“We don’t have a guy that is a dude on the mound, we don’t have a guy that’s a dude at the plate. We have a bunch of young men that just want to compete and play the game as hard and as well as they can,” he said.
“We struggled a little bit last year and we had a couple seniors that graduated last year but for most of us the key parts were back,” he said. “We went 12-19 last year and went 17-11 and won a conference title this year and were one swing, one pitch, one play away from possibly winning a district title. They work hard and the last thing I left them with is you don’t win a district title in season. You win it in the offseason. You win it on Wednesday nights during our pitching machine league. You win it in January and February when we’re hitting inside and throwing bullpens. We’ve got a lot of guys coming back and they got to see New Heights celebrate and deservingly so but I told them that needs to be in their craw a little bit, so to speak. Remember how this feels because we want to be on the other side of that.”
Damon Mahurin and Aldaba each went 2-for-4 for Purdy with Mahurin driving in 3 runs and Aldaba scoring 2. Walker and Lee each scored 2 runs. Starting pitcher Hunter Wormington struck out 4 and allowed 4 hits in his 4 innings of work. Grady Mahurin struck out 3 in 3 innings in relief.
For New Heights, Walker, Nelson and Anderson each recorded 2-hit days. Walker scored 2 runs and drove in 2 to go along with two steals and a triple; Nelson scored 3; Anderson had 2 runs and 3 RBI; and Burns had 2 RBI. Starter Smoke Ezell struck out 9 batters in 5 innings and Burns fanned 3 in 2 innings of relief.
“20th year of baseball at our school and first district title,” Jordan said. “They’ve done a lot of things. Won as many games as we’ve ever won. They won the first outright conference championship, and now the district title.”
“It’s just a reflection of the Lord and how good He’s been to our team and our school,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of success and we know it’s because of Him. The Lord has blessed these guys with great ability. We had six seniors and they wanted to keep playing. They don’t want this to end and they’re playing like it.”
