LISBON — Noah Austin of Lisbon had exhausted his pitch count and was close to exhausting his right arm Friday when he reached a 1-2 count against Patrick Rush of Hall-Dale with the tying run at second base in the sixth inning.
Austin still had enough left to paint one last fastball over the outside corner for a called strike to end the Bulldogs’ rally. Lucas Francis took over in relief for a 1-2-3 seventh, and Lisbon ended its perfect regular season with a 3-2 victory.
“That’s the first time I’ve hit my 110 (-pitch) limit,” said Austin, a senior. “In all of my years of pitching, I never threw that much. I think my max was, like, 82. They were a lot more selective and my stuff was working pretty good today, so I was getting a lot of swings and misses.”
The victory was the second of the season over the Bulldogs for the Greyhounds (16-0), who will play Hall-Dale (12-4) again at 11 a.m. Saturday at Oak Hill High for the Mountain Valley Conference championship before entering the Class C South tournament next week as the top seed. Hall-Dale will enter the tournament as the third seed.
“It’s incredible,” Austin said of Lisbon’s record. “We’ve played well all season. I had the most mistakes out of everybody in this game. Everybody played pretty clean. The bats have been going. We’re doing good.”
“I think the kids really wanted that undefeated season,” Lisbon Coach Randy Ridley said. “I think it’s fairly important to have that because it gives them a lot of confidence, especially against a good team and in a very close game, which it was. And it showed them they can play tight games against good teams and still come out on top.”
Austin allowed four hits, two walks, hit a batter and had a pair of balks, striking out seven in six innings. At the plate he went 3 for 3 with a double and run, and knocked in what turned out to be the winning run with a single in the second.
Austin didn’t allow a hit over the first 4 2/3 innings but did strand a pair of Bulldogs in the first, one in the third and one in the fifth due to two walks, the hit batter and his own fielding error.
“I like to start the hitter out with a strike, no matter what type of pitch I throw,” Austin said. “I throw a lot of curveballs, so to start out with a first strike is very important so that I can throw pitches that are close to the strike zone and get them behind, then I can throw a pitch chest-high that looks pretty good and get some of them to chase it.
“I usually don’t strike many batters out. I more pitch to contact.”
He rendered Austin Stebbins’ two-out single in the fifth harmless with a fly o center to end the inning, but got into immediate trouble in the sixth after a leadoff single by Akira Warren and an infield hit by Tim Cookson brought the tying run to the plate with no outs.
After a steal by Cookson put runners at second and third, Austin’s second balk sent Warren home for Hall-Dale’s first run. It also sent Cookson to third, and Alec Byron drove him in with a sacrifice fly to center to make it 3-2.
With two outs, Logan Dupont singled and stole second. Approaching the 110-pitch limit, Austin regrouped and struck out Rush.
“I threw two off-speed (pitches) to him that were pretty close (to strikes) that didn’t go my way,” Austin said. “I knew he was looking for off-speed because I was throwing a lot of them all day, so I just tried to get him on that outside corner.”
“He hasn’t thrown a lot all year long,” said Ridley, who picked up career coaching win No. 200 on Thursday against Winthrop. “I think that had a little bit to do with (Austin being fatigued). But Hall-Dale is a great team. There’s a reason why they’re the defending state champs and they proved it today. They battled. They fought off pitches. Noah still pitched a great game.”
Austin got the Greyhounds going early against Warren, Hall-Dale’s starter, launching a ground-rule double to left in the first that was ruled a home run before the umpires agreed the ball went over the fence on a bounce.
Francis (two hits) followed with a double to center to score Austin. After a walk and a groundout moved Francis to third, he scored when Warren uncorked a wild pitch.
Lisbon made it 3-0 when Austin ripped a two-out single to deep center to score D.J. Douglass, who led off the second inning with a single.
“I saw two curveballs and I usually don’t swing if it’s a first-pitch curveball,” Austin said. “Him throwing that, I think he thought he was going to get it by me again, but I knew it was coming. I was sitting on that.”
Warren allowed a single in every inning after that but didn’t yield another run.
“Akira pitched very well. He pitched well enough to win today,” Hall-Dale Coach Bob Sinclair said.
“I was pleased with the way the kids came back and continued to battle even though they were down by three, and made it close at the end. A one-run difference against a quality team like Lisbon is something to build upon going into the playoffs.”
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