Hough opens 4A baseball playoffs with romp against McDowell

After losing in the MECKA 4A tournament championship game, Hough High’s baseball team needed to get off to a strong start in its postseason opener.

Thanks to Nicholas Swiney and the Huskies’ offense, they did just that, beating McDowell 11-2 Wednesday night in the first round of the N.C. public schools 4A playoffs.

Swiney, a sophomore left-hander, struck out seven and allowed just three hits in four innings for fourth-seeded Hough (21-7), which was coming off an 8-4 loss to J.M. Robinson in the conference tournament final last week.

The Huskies’ offense did the rest, getting to Titans starter Trevor Newman and reliever Canaan Silver for eight runs in the first three innings.

“It was a good thing we came out playing good,” said Swiney, who also had an RBI double during a three-run second inning. “We started out hot. It really set the tone for us through the rest of the playoffs. We think we can go pretty far in this thing.”

In all, Hough got to 29th-seeded McDowell (11-12) for 12 hits and nine earned runs. The Huskies had their opportunities to add more runs, leaving eight runners on base – five of those in scoring position.

“We knew they had a pretty quality arm going tonight,” Hough coach Jimmy Cochran said of the Titans. “So we talked about putting pressure on him, and making him throw ‘stress pitches.’ We had a good approach at the plate. We had quality at-bats all night long.”

Quote

“We’ve not given up runs this season, but tonight if it could’ve gone wrong, it went wrong. Our starter was behind all night … and when we mix in wild pitches, hit by pitches and errors, it adds up in a hurry. It went as bad as it could go. It just got away from us early.” – McDowell coach Alex Smith.

Worth mentioning

Blake Matthews, Brett Shapcott, Luke Maye and Jordan Wilkins had two hits each for the Huskies. Maye also scored three times, Matthews and Will DeMarcus scored twice, and pinch-hitter Jordan Kowalski had a two-run single in the fourth. … Zack Craft, pitching in relief, struck out three and allowed just one run in three innings for Hough.

What’s next?

Hough will host 13th-seeded Northwest Guilford at 7 p.m. Friday. The Vikings (15-8) advanced by shutting out Independence 10-0 on Tuesday.

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 10:27 PM with the headline "Hough opens 4A baseball playoffs with romp against McDowell."