Tuesday May 19, 2009

Broughton's Carter Devlin shuts down Green Hope 4-0 in state playoffs

A well played playoff game tonight, solid defense for both teams, highlighted by GH's SS Eric Brady and Broughton's SS Michael Zeblo. Not much hitting from either team, 2 doubles and 2 singles by GH vs 1 double and 3 singles for Broughton. But the difference was Broughton's pitcher Carter Devlin just didn't give GH anything, striking 5 and not issuing even a single walk. Devlin had a perfect game through 4 innings, allowed a 2 out single to Brent McLeroy in the 5th, a 2 out double to Brady in the 6th, and after 2 outs in the 7th, gave up a single to Adam Boghosian and a double to McLeroy, and that was all the base runners GH had. Daniel Brown relieved for Broughton in the 7th to get the last out of the game.

GH pitched Joe Pistacchio (3 plus innings), Boghosian (2 plus innings), and Max Povse (2 innings). On the positive side, GH only gave up 4 hits and struckout 10 batters, but 6 walks and a hit batter just didn't match up to Devlin's performance tonight. While GH didn't get any base runners until 2 were out, Broughton got leadoff runners on in the 1st, 4th, 6th, and 7th innings from a HBP, a walk, a 1B, and a walk. Broughton was able to score 2 in both the 1st and 4th innings.

Although Broughton and GH each had 4 hits, Broughton got better at bats, fouling off pitches, and working the count to get some of those walks. Meanwhile GH only hit 4 fair ground balls the entire game, and all 4 went to Broughton's best infielder, SS Michael Zeblo, and all were turned into easy outs. For the game, GH hit 2 line drive singles, 2 line drive doubles, 4 grounders to Zeblo, 5 strikeouts, and 12 pop ups.

The CAP7 conference has proved in the state playoffs that it is the best conference in the triangle region this year, and it seemed that Broughton was more battle tested than GH in this game, evident by better at bats and great pitching tonight.

So GH ends the season as co-conference champion with Middle Creek, and finishes 20-6 on the year, certainly a very good year for GH.