Dave Morrison
HICO – Greenbrier West’s Dale Boone found himself right in the middle just about everything Thursday in the Cavaliers’ game at Midland Trail.
In a key early-season matchup between Class A, Region 3, Section 2 rivals, he checked each box in the Cavaliers’ 5-2 victory.
You’ve got pitching. He went the distance and gave up four hits, two runs (one earned), walked two and struck out 10, including the side in the seventh. He did that all on an efficient 91 pitches, and faced just 26 batters, five over the minimum. Check.
You’ve got hitting. He was 1 for two, the one hit a key double that drove in two, including the game-winning run, in a three-run sixth. Check.
You’ve got base-running. That final run in the sixth came win Boone alertly stole home and gave the Cavaliers a little more insurance. Check.
It was a stellar performance.
“Let’s be honest,” Greenbrier West coach Matt McClung said, looking at his senior star’s sizable stat line. “He put the game on his shoulders and said, ‘I’ve got this.’ He threw a heck of a game, a complete game, he had a two-RBI double, and then caught the catcher sleeping there (on the steal of home). So, he gave us three runs on his own and held them to two so that’s a pretty good game from him.”
Midland Trail coach John Mark Kincaid credited Boone, though his own starter Larry Bigham pitched an outstanding game himself, going seven innings with 14 strikeouts.
“Their pitcher was better than us today,” Midland Trail John Mark Kincaid said. “Both pitchers dominated the game, let’s just be honest. We didn’t play clean enough to beat them. They manufactured their plays. Their experience showed and our inexperience should at some positions even though we have a lot of seniors. They just beat us.”
McClung said some added velocity since the last time the teams met last spring, helped Thursday.
“I gained about 10 miles an hour on my fastball since last year and they haven’t seen me yet,” Boone said. “I came out feeling strong.”
He looked it, a disputed home run by Aaron Dempsey the only run he gave up until Trail added one on an error in the seventh, around his three strikeouts.
His double in the three-run sixth provided the game-winning run and was close to leaving he park.
“I came up there hoping to see something I liked,” Boone said. “I took the first one and the second one was perfect, right in my wheelhouse. I just barreled up. I did (think it was out) for a second.”
Boone said a loss to Trail last year in the sectional tournament, and the fact that the teams have become fierce baseball rivals, makes getting the first on special.
“We lost here last year in a tough game (8-7) last year,” Boone said. “This really matters in the sectional championship. It’s much easier to play them at home than to go someplace else. Hopefully we can get the one seed over Charleston Catholic.”
As the defending state champion, with one of the state’s top pitchers in Jonah Dicocco, Catholic is the team everyone is chasing.
While Boone was doing his thing, teammate Brayden McClung was doing his, with two hits and two runs and a game-disrupting five steals. He is a veritable dust devil, his uniform already caked in dirt the end of the first inning.
McClung is a prototypical leadoff hitter, a contact hitter who once he gets on base causes the kind of chaos a pitcher doesn’t want, and a catcher dreads. His five steals prove that.
“I would hate to be a pitcher with Brayden McClung on the base paths because he is going to stretch his leads as far as he can,” said McClung, the Brayden’s coach and dad. “He’s got the green light. Brayden never gets the steal sign. We want the pitcher and catcher to always be thinking. We want him to cause havoc. He’s a really good leadoff. He battles pitchers. He gets on base. Then when he gets on base, he runs the bases super well.”
Boone said as a pitcher he understands the problems a player like McClung can cause once he is on base.
“It’s nice putting pressure on the basepaths,” Boone said. “You’ve got someone you know isn’t going to steal you don’t worry about him. You get up there (on the mound) and someone’s going to take a bag on you, it gets a little nuts up there, and you get a little out of your rhythm.”
With McClung, who is hitting .375, providing a disruptive force on the basepaths, and leading the lineup of bats like Ethan Holliday (.308), Boone (.429) and Cole Vandall (.357), West has put itself in good position early on with a key win.
“We’re dawgs,” Boone said. “I think we can get out there and compete with anybody.”
