Habersham Central High School’s varsity baseball team swept a pair of contests Saturday against West Hall and Stephens County high schools as the Raiders hosted their annual Mayfield-Dover Memorial Diamond Day.
The day is held to honor former Raider coaches Patrick Mayfield and Shane Dover.
Mayfield passed away in 2019, which led to the first Memorial Diamond Day in his name in 2020. But when Dover passed away in 2022, the program added his name to honor him as well.
“To honor Patrick Mayfield and Shane Dover is something we started doing in the 2020 season, the year after Patrick passed away,” HCHS Head Coach Chris Akridge said. “Then, obviously Shane passed away in 2022. We just designated this day as our Mayfield-Dover Memorial Diamond Day to remember those guys and play in their honor.
“It’s just a great way to honor two great men, who, to me, were phenomenal leaders because they had a servant’s heart. They were always looking for ways to help others and to help our kids and make them better,” he continued. “I’m glad our guys went out and played hard in their honor today.”
The program included a member of each family in the festivities with Mayfield’s grandson and one of Dover’s two sons throwing out a first pitch to commemorate the day.
Game 1: Habersham Central 5, West Hall 2
After West Hall (1-6) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, senior Konnor Burrell put the Raiders (6-1) on top for good in the bottom of the frame with a two-run home run.
In the fourth inning, HCHS did something Akridge said he had never seen before.
“We had three triples in one inning, which has never happened – Well, I’ve never experienced that in 24 years of coaching,” Akridge said. “We were able to put up a big inning that inning.”
The three to round the bases all the way to third that inning were Charlie Mills, Kaleb Chastain and Spencer Frady. The feat allowed the Raiders to post three runs in the frame, ultimately closing out the game.
Kade Nicholson took the mound for HCHS and tossed a gem.
The senior lasted five innings, allowing four hits and one earned run while striking out eight. He faced 20 batters, walked one and threw 50-of-73 pitches for strikes.
Chastain, also a senior, closed the game out on the bump, seeing just seven batters and striking out two.
Overall, seven batters in the Raiders’ lineup earned hits. Only three strikeouts were recorded against HCHS in 24 at-bats in the game.
The 5-2 victory comes after seeing West Hall earlier in the week, which ended in a 14-2, run-rule game in favor of HCHS. Akridge knew Saturday’s matchup would be closer than that.
“(This) game was much tighter than earlier in the week and I told our guys it would be. When we played them early in the week, they were pretty thing on pitching,” Akridge said. “We saw one of their better guys today and he did a great job of keeping us off balance.”
The head coach said his team was able to adapt at the plate and settle in to ultimately put up that big inning in the fourth.
“Our guys made adjustments at the plate and adjusted to the way he was pitching us,” Akridge said. “I was very proud of that.”
Game 2: Habersham Central 10, Stephens County 0 (5 innings)
Burrell didn’t slow down his solid performance with just the home run in the first game of the day, he decided to put on a two-way show in the final game of the day as well.
The senior took to the mound and, with the help of his defense, was decisive against the Indians (4-4).
Burrell allowed just one hit and one walk in the contest. He struck out seven in the complete game effort.
With a minimum of 15 batters to face in five innings, Burrell saw 17. He threw 40-of-63 pitches for strikes.
“Konner, he was really good on the mound tonight. He threw a ton of strikes, arm felt great,” Akridge said. “He threw in relief on Tuesday, he closed against Elbert on Tuesday, and only threw 25 pitches. We knew Konner’s arm was going to be in good shape going into the game and he threw a ton of strikes.
“The defense played really, really well behind him, so that was huge.”
Burrell also provided another offensive spark for the Raiders at the plate.
In the bottom of the first, the big bat showed up again with another two-run shot over the fence for the 2-0 lead.
The fourth inning was another big one for HCHS with the guys putting up eight runs in the frame.
With bases loaded, Stephens County walked in a run.
Then senior Hayden Gailey hit what looked to be a grand slam off the bat, but the ball fell at the bottom of the fence, wedging itself for a ground-rule double and adding another two runs for HCHS.
A balk by the Indians’ pitcher added another run and moved Gailey to third. Sophomore Maverick Chitwood followed up with a line drive off the pitcher’s glove to plate Gailey.
With Chitwood and a hit batsman on base and two outs, Burrell stepped to the plate and delivered again. This time with a 2-run triple to right-center field.
Burrell was brought home by Mills on a sky-high pop up to shallow left field that found its way to the ground for a 10-0 lead after four innings.
“We’re certainly not going to rely on the big inning, but we have some guys that have some pop. That showed today,” Akridge said of his offense. “Konner with his second home run of the day, third of the week. Hayden hit one that hit off the fence. We have several guys with lots of pop.
“But we have guys that have embraced the small ball aspect,” he continued. “They understand that makes us a much more well-rounded team offensively. That helped tonight.”
Having Burrell pitch a complete game Saturday night and to finish it in five innings, with the number of games the team has played this week, was huge.
“To win it in five (innings) is big,” Akridge said. “We’ve got Hebron Christian coming in here on Tuesday. They’ll be a solid team, very well coached. Really, we only have two pitchers that are unavailable. Everybody else is available, which is a great thing after playing five games in five days. Certainly excited about where we are at the end of this week.”
Akridge spread the appreciation around when it came to the health of his pitching staff with the workload of the past week.
“To play five games in five days, our pitching was in really good shape today,” Akridge said. “That’s a tribute to Coach (Dan) Keef, our pitching coach, and the arm care program he has for our guys and to our kids for the work they’ve put in this offseason.”
The Raiders have two more games this week – Hebron Christian at home Tuesday at 5:55 p.m. and at Stephens County Friday at 5:30 p.m. – before region play kicks off, the team is off to a hot start at 6-1. On top of that, they’re outscoring opponents 61-26 and averaging 8.7 runs per contest.
“I’ll take it,” Akridge said. “We’ve been swinging it well. We’ve got Hebron next week and Stephens next week as two final tune ups for region play. We’ve just got to keep getting better and keep progressing as a team.”
