DEACON JONES INVITATIONAL: Bulldogs blank Hurricanes

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 22, 2017 11:26 PM

• Print
• Email

PRINCETON -- After a mid-week practice, Princeton head baseball coach Justin Willoughby held a long meeting with his team.

"I thought the last couple of games we played, we were relaxed, kind of going through the motions," he said. "Our mind wasn't focused on baseball. Our mind was focused on other things.

"I challenged them to commit to what we're trying to do."

Challenge accepted.

Princeton hustled after every ball, had quality at-bats, played hard and supported each other during its 10-0, opening-round victory over Cape Hatteras in the 2017 Deacon Jones Invitational on Friday evening.

Tanner Flowers and Will Gurganious combined for a one-hitter as the Bulldogs (8-7 overall) advanced to the title game for the fourth time since 2013. Flowers retired nine of 10 batters he faced - seven on strikeouts, a groundout and a pickoff play at first.

Flowers, a Barton College signee, departed in the fourth with an injury (blister) to his ring finger on his right hand.

"Early on offensively, we just couldn't touch Flowers," second-year Hatteras head coach Keith Durham said. "He's head and shoulders above a lot of what we see."

Gurganious allowed the lone hit - a single up the middle by the Hurricanes' Colby Day in the fourth inning. Cape Hatteras (7-9) had just three runners to reach base during the mercy-rule affair.

The Bulldogs seized command in the second inning.

Caleb French ignited a five-run uprising with a lead-off single. The Hurricanes threw the ball away twice on Adam Crocker's at-bat, and French scored on the second miscue. Crocker stole home on a pop-up into foul territory while Hatteras' defense failed to covered the plate.

Another error, Alex Hickman's RBI double and Luke Braswell's RBI single capped the rally. Hickman has signed with Averett (Va.) University.

"We had moments tonight where we looked like a good baseball team, played our way out of a couple of situations," Durham said. "We had moments tonight where we looked like we had brainlock and everything went haywire. You definitely can't give good teams extra outs.

"Princeton, hat's off to them. They did what good teams do...give them extra outs and they punish you for it."

The Bulldogs scored nine unearned runs.

Eight of nine PHS starters posted at least one hit on the night, including two each by Hickman and No. 9 hitter Nathan Ramby.

"I know it's easy to say after a 10-0 game, but after the first inning I knew - whether we won or lost - we were going in the right direction by how we approached the game today," Willoughby said. "I'd been satisfied (with the outcome) either way."