HUNTINGTON -- Shortstop Matt Napier's defensive gem preserved a Babe Ruth Baseball 14-year-old state championship for Huntington Southeastern.
Napier's leaping catch in the top of the seventh inning Sunday helped Southeastern defeat Elkins, 6-5, in the championship game at Harry Lewin Field in Beckley. Up next for Southeastern is the Ohio Valley Region tournament beginning July 31 in Shelbyville, Ind.
Southeastern went 3-0 in the tournament, and Sunday was the only day they didn't score at least 10 runs.
"We knew we could compete, since we won it last year," Huntington coach Mark Bell said in a report by The Register-Herald newspaper of Beckley. "We knew we were going to be facing some very good teams. Elkins is a good team and we knew Harrison (County) was a very good team. We didn't know anything about Beckley and Big Creek. We knew there was going to be good competition."
Elkins provided that Sunday. Starting pitcher Brennan Dettinger allowed Southeastern's offense just two runs through the first four innings. Southeastern broke through with four in the fifth to take a 6-3 lead.
Elkins scored a run in the sixth and then made things interesting in the seventh. With two runners on base, Ryan Bonnell hit a line drive off Huntington reliever Steve Mason. Napier jumped to snare the ball in his glove to end the game.
Napier, who a freshman at Cabell Midland High School, was mobbed by his teammates after making the title-clinching play.
"I was scared," Napier admitted. "He hit the ball and I was going for it, and I was (thinking), 'I don't know if I can get it.' So I jumped, and somehow I came down with it.
"It knocked the breath out of me. I put my hands up in the air and I heard everybody screaming. I was like, 'I caught it'."
Huntington starter Cody Brown got the win. He allowed two runs on six hits over five innings, striking out three and walking two.
ELKINS 000 111 2 -- 5 9 2
SOUTHEASTERN 011 040 x -- 6 6 4
Brennan Dettinger, Houston Schuler (6) and J.D. Brown; Cody Brown, Steve Mason (6) and Lucas Doss. WP -- Brown. LP -- Dettinger.
Hitting: (E) Scott Fox 3-4, 2B, Corey Howell 2-4, HR, Ryan Bonnell 2B; (S) Jacob Reynolds 2-4, Doss 2-2.
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