Hilton Head Prep baseball's state title series will go the distance

Calhoun Academy’s Fuller Prickett took the third pitch he saw from Hilton Head Prep righty Cem Caglyan in the top of the fifth inning and drilled it to left field.

Left fielder Gage Hurlbut ran back toward the fence and began to turn around as the ball arced toward the grass beyond the outfield. Hurlbut made a good play on the ball but couldn’t hold on, and he and the ball went tumbling over the mesh fencing.

It was a home run for Fuller, and Calhoun’s first run of the game.

Calhoun beat Prep 3-2 on Wednesday night to even the best-of-three-games series that will determine the SCISA Class 2-A state champion. The exact time and location for the decisive third game will be announced soon, Prep coach Dobbie Green said after the contest. What is known is that Prep will be the home team at the neutral-site game, and that Reese Irwin will start on the mound for the Dolphins.

It was a slow start for Calhoun, which threatened early but seemed flummoxed by Caglyan’s breaking pitches. But the fifth inning, the only one in which the Cavaliers scored, turned out to be all they needed.

As Hurlbut lay on the ground, on top of the mesh fencing in left field, Prep fans pleaded their case to the umpires for a ground rule double.

“To be honest, I kind of thought it was a pop out,” Prickett said after the game, explaining that he didn’t feel like he’d made good enough contact to knock the ball out of the park.

Prickett’s coach motioned for him him to keep rounding the bases, and the home plate umpire held up his hand and twirled his index finger in the air.

The home run stood, and it was followed by more as the Cavaliers’ bats came alive.

Cem Caglyan was able to keep Calhoun’s batters at bay early with some nifty offspeed pitches, but the Cavaliers found their timing in the top of the fifth. They added two more runs in the frame for a 3-0 lead.

Calhoun pitcher Robert Lewis, who picked up a complete-game win, managed to get out of a jam in the bottom of the third. Prep loaded the bases with one out when Irwin came to the plate. The Cavaliers had drawn in their infield, and Irwin grounded into a double play — with a little help from the umpires, joked Green after the game.

Irwin reached first safely, but his teammate — EJ Churchich, who slid into second and knocked down the Calhoun player covering that bag — was called for interference. That meant Irwin was out, too. It was the first of two interference-assisted double plays the Cavaliers would turn.

After coming in to relieve Caglyan in the top of the sixth, Gavin Hurlbut led off the bottom of the inning for Prep with a solo home run to make the score 3-1.

Lewis walked Churchich, then walked Irwin. That brought up right fielder Ricky Ledee with runners on first and second base.

“He’s done, Ricky!” a Prep fan yelled from behind home plate. “Light him up!”

Ledee hit the ball crisply, but right at the Cavaliers second baseman, who flipped it to the shortstop covering the bag. Irwin, running to second, was called for interference, which meant Ledee was automatically out at first — another double play. Prep’s Kyle Atkins ended the inning by grounding out to the pitcher, which left Churchich stranded on third base.

Calhoun threatened in the top of the seventh, putting runners on first and second base, but Hurlbut escaped the danger by inducing a groundout to second base.

Prep’s Aidan Sanz started the bottom half of the final inning with a single up the middle, then Lewis clipped the top of Gage Hurlbut’s helmet.

Hurlbut trotted to first as the Cavaliers’ coach came out to argue the call, to no avail.

The Dolphins’ Nic Lucchesi managed a bunt single, which loaded the bases with no outs. Hard-swing first baseman Tyler Fox came to the plate and hit a high fly ball into foul territory down the right-field side.

Calhoun’s right fielder tracked it down and hauled it in, but Sanz tagged and scored to make it 3-2.

Gavin Hurlbut came to the plate with one out and runners at the corners, but Lewis induced a ground ball, which led to a game-ending double play.

“Gavin’s a tough kid,” Green said after the game. “He’ll be ready to go (in Game 3).”

This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 10:22 PM with the headline "Hilton Head Prep baseball's state title series will go the distance."