Hough routs Myers Park in conference final, plus CMS baseball/softball results

Hough High baseball coach Pete Jenkins has some advice for fans anticipating the Class 8A playoffs — strap yourselves in.

“It’s going to be crazy – a real battle,” Jenkins said of the 8A West postseason bracket, which will be released Monday with first-round games the next night.

Jenkins’ team showed Thursday night that it will be a part of that battle.

The Huskies scored five times in the fifth inning and coasted to a 10-2 victory over Myers Park in the championship game of the Greater Charlotte 7A/8A conference tournament.

“Just look at the RPI ratings, and you’ll see how loaded it is,” Jenkins added.

Currently first in the Class 8A ratings is Providence, which is 25-1 and edged Ardrey Kell 8-6 Thursday night in the Southwestern 7A/8A championship game.

Second is Myers Park (22-3). Ardrey Kell (21-5) is third, and Hough (17-7) is fifth, behind fourth-place West Forsyth.

The highest-ranked 8A team from the East is sixth.

“Hough is a really good team that probably deserves to be ranked a little higher,” Myers Park coach Erik Foor said Thursday night. “The playoffs will be a dogfight.”

Myers Park beat Hough in the teams’ two regular-season contests, but the Huskies were on top of their game Thursday night at Garinger High’s field.

“Eight of our nine batters got a hit,” Jenkins said. “We had a lot of two-out hits that got things going.”

Nobody questions that Hough can hit the ball. The Huskies are averaging nearly nine runs a game this season.

They blew the game open Thursday night with a big fifth inning. Aided by three walks, the Huskies got two-run singles from Tyler Colvin and Harrison Sheets.

Jenkins, who is in his third year as head coach after nine years as an assistant to Jimmy Cochran, said his Huskies are “a resilient bunch.”

“They never give up, and they deliver in the clutch,” he said.

Hough’s pitching has been spotty in a few games this season, but starter Alex Riley and reliever Aiden Sladicka were excellent Thursday night.

Riley worked 5 1/3 innings, scattering five hits and allowing two runs. Jenkins lifted him for Sladicka in the sixth inning, after the Mustangs’ Price Bailey and Jack Butler reached base.

Sladicka retired the next two batters in the sixth and had three strikeouts in the seventh.

Jenkins said Riley and Jackson Drury give Hough two strong starters, and Sladicka anchors a solid bullpen.

“Alex Riley was the star of the game tonight,” Jenkins said. “He is coming back from arm surgery, so went slow with him this season. But he is pitching well now.”

Foor said Hough deserved the victory Thursday night and called the loss “a reality check” for his team.

“I think we’re in a good spot entering the playoffs,” he said of the Myers Park team. “Hough played a really tough schedule, and so did we. I think that puts us both in good shape for the postseason.”

He said the Mustangs will do a “reset, mentality-wise,” and “get ready for the playoffs next week.”

The top four seeds in the West — Providence and Myers Park, along with two of the other three (Ardrey Kell, Hough and West Forsyth) — will have first-round byes next week.

CMS tournament finals

BASEBALL

Greater Charlotte

Hough 10, Myers Park 2

Meck Power 6

Butler 10, Independence 4

Southwestern 7A/8A

Providence 8, Ardrey Kell 6

SOFTBALL

Greater Charlotte

Hough 15, South Mecklenburg 0

Meck Power 6

Butler 6, Independence 0

Southwestern 7A/8A

Providence 11, Ardrey Kell 2