Eagles' Hunt tames Dragons: South Charleston hurler throws one-hitter in MSAC semifinal

Even the cool temperatures could not freeze the season-longeffectiveness of Chris Hunt.

A South Charleston High junior, Hunt earned his sixth win of theseason with a one-hit complete game in the Black Eagles' 5-1 victoryMonday night over visiting St. Albans in a Mountain State AthleticConference baseball tournament semifinal.

"I had good stuff working today," Hunt said. "I wasn't worriedabout being down by one run. I just kept throwing out there and theykept hitting ground-ball and fly-ball outs."

The fourth-rated Black Eagles (17-8), who beat Class AAA No. 3 St.Albans 23-5 last week, thus moved into today's 7 p.m. MSACchampionship game at South Charleston High.

St. Albans (18-4) meets Huntington in the 5 p.m. consolation gameat the same site.

Hunt, who entered the game with a 0.58 ERA, allowed only an earlyunearned run. He struck out eight and walked two. Of his 93 pitches,63 were for strikes.

He thus outdueled St. Albans Zack Brightwell, who also threw acomplete game. Brightwell walked one and fanned five, but surrenderedfour runs in the bottom of the third.

"I felt confident out there today," Brightwell said. "My arm feltreally good. I think I'm ready for the stretch run now."

Temperatures hovered in the upper 30s during much of the game.Brightwell has not able to stay as warm as Hunt.

"It's tough for any team to win by getting two hits," Brightwellsaid. "I could have given up two runs and that would have been toomuch tonight."

South Charleston's big inning was highlighted by Blake Rogers'opposite-field two-run single that gave the Black Eagles a 2-1 edge.Nathan Jividen's two-run single later in the inning essentially,because of Hunt's effectiveness, broke the game open.

The Black Eagles added an insurance run in the fourth when Rogers'two-out single scored Chris Diehl.

"I tried to be aggressive at the plate in that last at-bat,"Rogers said.

"Blake is an excellent clutch hitter," SC Coach Mike Carte said."There is nobody else on this team I would rather see come to theplate with the game on the line. He did the same type of thing lastweek in our game against Beckley."

Rogers will receive a chance to star on the defensive end today.He is scheduled to start on the mound against Riverside, hoping toimprove his 4-2 record.

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