Baseball: Highland pulls away late to pound Dobson, 11-3

March 31, 2014 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Highland's baseball team is non-descript and sometimes a group like that does a pretty good job racking up victories.

Highland added win No. 13 on Monday afternoon by scoring four runs each in the sixth and seventh to defeat Dobson, 11-3, in a Division I game at Dobson.

"We don't have scouts coming out, but we have a bunch of pretty good players," Highland coach Scott Cook said. "They're good kids. They're not worried about who's playing or who's not playing. That makes it fun. Win, lose or draw we're having fun."

Highland ran its overall record to 13-3 and is 6-1 in power-ranking games as the calendar turns to the very serious month of April when every game is a power-ranking game. Dobson, which has struggled this season and had three freshmen in its lineup on Monday, dropped to 3-12, 1-5 prg.

The game for the most part was a sparring match between left-handed starters -- Highland's Kevin Eversman and Dobson's Tyler Stokes. Highland touched Stokes for two-out runs in the first and second and led 2-0 through 3 1/2 innings.

In the bottom of the fourth came Dobson's chance to do some damage. Eversman issued two walks and a runner reached on an error to fill the bases with one out. Eversman left nothing to chance striking out the next two hitters on seven pitches to end the threat.

"He beared down and made some quality pitches to get those strikeouts," Cook said. "He had a little trouble in the first and the fourth, but he got through those innings."

Eversman worked five innings and departed after his teammates added four runs in the top of the sixth to push the lead to 7-0. Eversman fanned seven,walked four and allowed only one hit. Stokes allowed six hits, but kept Highland off balance with a mix of curves and changeups and an occasionaly fastball. Stokes was charged with three runs, two earned in a quality effort.

Offfensively for Highland Austin Parent had two hits and two RBI -- a double in the first and single in the fifth that scored double-happy Austin Maltby. Maltby, hitting in the clean-up spot, did his job collecting three doubles and driving in three runs. Leadoff hitter Ryan McCord checked in with three hits and scored twice.