MORGANTOWN — Don’t look now, but the University High School baseball team is starting to get hot.
The Hawks (13-11) have won eight of their last 12 after a tough start to the season.
On Friday, as UHS celebrated the military with special uniforms provided by the national guard, the Hawks beat visiting Laurel Highlands (Pa.) 5-1 in a rain-shortened five-inning contest.
“Our dugout is doing a great job of bring the energy,” UHS head coach Travis Renner said. “The guys knew today that we were short staffed in the dugout because we had a lot of guys playing with our JV team, and they stepped up to the occasion. They understand that if they can keep the energy up in the dugout, no matter the situation in the game, it’s going to keep our guys on the field playing with confidence.”
That energy helped UHS grab a 2-0 lead early as it scored two runs in the second inning when Tommy Montague scored on a wild pitch and Curtis Quarrick drove in a run on a perfectly placed suicide squeeze play.
Two runs were all starting pitcher Jacob Kennison needed as he cruised through all five innings to pick up the victory.
After a couple of rough outings early in the year, Kennison has become one of the top pitchers for the Hawks this year.
“I knew I was better than what I was doing at the beginning of the year,” Kennison, a senior, said. “Once I had my first good performance, I have just kept rolling.”
Kennison said there hasn’t been anything that he has done specifically to improve this year, except a slight change in attitude.
“I went in with a bad mentality at the beginning of the year and I was just down on myself,” Kennison said. “But once I changed my mentality, things started to click.”
The pitching staff has been a big reason for University’s turnaround on the diamond and in the win column.
“We knew we had guys all along but getting them settled in and understanding what they need to do to be successful took a little time,” Renner said. “They have all mad good adjustments, and they’re all locked in, and laser focused now, and they know what their job is, and they know what day their job is, and they know when they got to come out and do their job.”
The Hawks scored three more runs in the third as Lukas Neer provided the big hit with a two-run double to centerfield. Brock Shuba also scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Colson Jenkins to close the scoring for UHS.
Max Cash had two hits in the contest including a double while Montague added a pair of singles. Kennison finished with five strikeouts and allowed just two hits.
University returns to action on Monday when it travels to Preston for a 5:30 p.m. contest.
— Story by Eric Herter
Box score
LH 000 01 – 1 2 0
UHS 023 0X – 5 8 1
LH – Hoff 2 0 0 0, Crouch 3 0 0 0, Vecchiolla 2 0 1 0, Lion 1 0 0 0, Senchur 2 0 1 0, Kutchman 2 0 0 0, Gallick 2 0 0 0, D’Amico 2 0 0 0, Schoch 1 1 0 0. Totals: 17 1 2 0.
UHS – Quarrick 2 0 1 1, McCune 3 0 0 0, Cash 3 1 2 0, Grabo 0 1 0 0, Shuba 2 1 1 0, Neer 3 0 1 2, Montague 3 1 2 0, Jenkins 1 0 0 1, Waldo 2 0 1 0. Totals 19 5 8 4.
2B – Neer, Cash
WP – Kennison 5ip 2h 1r 0er 1bb 5k
LP – Johns 2ip 3h 2r 2er 2bb 0k.
