From the Hart: Gryphons shut out Knights behind pitching gem

If the Northern Nash baseball team hoped to have a chance against host Rocky Mount High during Tuesday’s 3-A Big East Conference game, it wouldn’t come with Evan Hart on the mound.

The problem for the Knights was that they couldn’t string enough hits together to knock Hart out of the game, as the right-handed pitcher scorched his way through the Knights lineup.

The only thing that could slow Hart was his pitch count, a number that caught up to him in the sixth. The Gryphons starter reached the 105 pitch limit with two outs in the sixth, denying the freshman a complete game. For the Knights, it was too late to get anything going.

RMH (7-8, 3-2) rode a terrific outing from Hart, and pushed across some early runs that held up in a 4-0 victory over their cross-town rivals in the first of a two-game series that concludes on Thursday.

“I just tried to hit my spots throughout the game,” Hart said. “Sometimes I don’t really mean to throw up high in the zone, but hitters get anxious and swing at it.

Hart was dominant throughout, piling up 13 strikeouts while issuing just one walk. Hart allowed four hits, all of which came in the third and fourth innings. He pitched to all but one batter, as Gates Harrell came on in relief to record the final out via strikeout after Hart had to be pulled after reaching 105 pitches.

“I **** that we had to pull him there,” RMH coach Carter Varnell said. “He was one batter away. We told him to throw fastballs and pitch to contact there in that last inning to try and get through. But it was, in my mind, a complete-game shutout.”

The freshman opened the game by working a pair of 1-2-3 innings. In the third, Hart worked around two singles by striking out three batters. Again, the Knights (2-14, 1-4) threatened to score in the fourth with back-to-back singles with two out, before Hart ended the threat with a looking strikeout.

“If we can get any sort of offense going with pitching like that,” RMH coach Carter Varnell said, “then we’ll be just fine.”

Silas Gonzalez, a Northern Nash senior committed to play baseball at Air Force, almost took Hart deep to open the sixth, but the ball stayed in the air and was caught at the warning track in center field.

“He hit the **** of that,” Hart said on Gonzalez’s long flyout. “He almost got me, luckily my defense helped me out. Even with a hitter like that at the plate, I try to make my pitches and let my defense help me out.”

Jamar Ellis and Austin Luttrell paced the Gryphons at the top of the order with five combined hits, including three from Luttrell. Harrell, from the ninth spot, helped turn over the order with timely hitting. Harrell finished with a single and a sacrifice fly to collect a pair of RBI.

“We had a good start offensively, and we seemed to be on a good pace,” Varnell said. “My goal for the game was to score a run in every inning, be consistent. We got a lead, but got too relaxed. We had opportunities, but couldn’t get that timely base hit.”

Knights starter Charlie Rooks allowed four runs over four innings in a losing effort.