By Tyler Fitzgerald
For the Tribune
TRUSSVILLE — Earlier this week, the Hewitt Trussville Huskies shut out its area foe Huntsville. The Huskies were riding a wave of momentum heading into their Thursday night game against Huntsville at home. This time, however, the Huskies were unable to keep the Panthers off the scoreboard and dropped a vital area game 3-1.
Huntsville wasted no time getting their bats going. Starting pitcher for the Huskies, Cameron Furr walked the lead off batter Tony Costanza. Huntsville then capitalized on this mistake when first baseman Tyson Lee smoked a ball to center field to bring in Costanza, and put the Panthers out in front 1-0.
The Huskies came out flat with their bats, going three up and three down to start offensively.
In the top of the third inning, the Panthers extended their lead when Costanza chopped a high bouncing ball over the head of Huskies third baseman Creed Parker. Huntsville right fielder Tommy McMillan doubled into center field. An errant throw by the Huskies sent McMillan to third and brought Costanza home. Huntsville would score another run off of the hot bat of Lee as he hit an RBI double down the left field line, building the Panthers lead to 3-0.
The Huskies started to show signs of life in the bottom of the fourth inning when Gavin Garner singled to bring in one run, trimming the Huntsville lead to 3-1. Huntsville’s starting pitcher Christian MacLeod proved to be too much, however, as the Huskies struggled to get any offense going for the rest of the game.
The loss drops Hewitt-Trussville to 1-3 in the area, and improved Huntsville to 3-1. The Huskies will take on Gadsden City next week, and must win both games against the Titans. Some help from Grissom will also be needed as the Tigers will need to sweep Huntsville to force a tie for second place.
According to AHSAA.com, if Hewitt-Trussville and Huntsville tied for second place in the area, the Huskies would advance on tiebreaker “E”. Hewitt-Trussville owns a 1.000 win percentage against non-region Class 7A teams, while Huntsville currently owns a .500 percentage.
The Huskies do not play any additional non-area in-class teams while Huntsville faces both Bob Jones and James Clemens again.