By Shaun Szkolnik, sports editor
FLORENCE – After 10 innings of play, a walk-off home run by Husky Julian Sauger gave Hewitt-Trussville the 1-0 victory in the second game of the AHSAA 7A quarterfinal against the Florence Falcons Thursday, May 2.
The game quickly became a battle of pitching with Jared Waits taking the win for Hewitt-Trussville. He gave up zero runs and six hits. He struck out 12 and pitched for seven and two-thirds innings.
Grant Taylor took the loss for Florence. He pitched for seven and two-thirds innings. Taylor struck out 16 and walked one. He gave up one hit and no runs.
The Huskies did even better in the first game of the series, defeating the Falcons 4-1.
The Huskies put up their first run in the second inning when Creed Parker singled on a 0-1 count, scoring a run.
The Huskies took the lead for the remainder of the game in the third when Jacob Bishop grounded out, scoring a run.
Michael Fowler had the win for the Huskies. He gave up seven hits and one run. Fowler struck out seven and walked one. He pitched for seven innings.
“God is good,” said head coach Jeff Mauldin. “That kid (Julian Sauger) honestly he is our leader. He is our spiritual leader and for him to be able to do something like that in that moment is really special. It is a proud moment. His mom is here to see him do it. It is absolutely amazing. He caught 17 innings and hit a walk-off home run in the bottom off the tenth. He threw out a runner earlier in the inning. I’m super proud of him. I couldn’t be any prouder of the kid.”
“Big win right there,” said Sauger. “A great team win. First off, I want to thank Florence, they’re a great program, a great team, and they really went out to bat tonight. Second, I want to thank Jesus Christ. He does everything for me. He gives me the opportunity to play baseball every day and I like to give back to that…anyone on our team could get that hit. Anyone can. It just happened to fall on me tonight. Our pitchers did a heck of a job. Our team did a heck of a job defensively. It was just a matter of who’s going to get it done. We found a way.”
The Huskies advance to the semi-final round of the playoffs next Friday at Phil English Field in Trussville.
Walk it off Sauger! pic.twitter.com/Tl1eOzTNiT
— HT Athletics (@HewittAthletics) May 3, 2019