Gryphons zoom past Eagles to reach baseball’s second round

Rocky Mount High’s Jake Philbeck hustles home to score the first run of the game Tuesday against Fayetteville Douglas Byrd in the NCHSAA 3-A first round playoffs at Rocky Mount High School.
©TELEGRAM PHOTO / ALAN CAMPBELL

Rocky Mount High’s David Harrison pitches to Fayetteville Douglas Byrd on Tuesday during the NCHSAA 3-A first round playoffs at Rocky Mount High School.
©TELEGRAM PHOTO / ALAN CAMPBELL

Rocky Mount High’s Spencer Ramsey briefly watches the ball fly to left field Tuesday during the game against Fayetteville Douglas Byrd in the NCHSAA 3-A first round playoffs at Rocky Mount High School. Ramsey singled and advanced to second on the play.
©TELEGRAM PHOTO / ALAN CAMPBELL

The Rocky Mount High baseball team got production from a usual source. Then it got a boost from an unfamiliar place.

Left-handed ace David Harrison tossed a gem, while the bottom of the lineup provided timely hits and early runs to send the Gryphons to a 4-0 win over visiting Fayetteville Douglas Byrd on Tuesday in the opening round of the NCHSAA 3-A playoffs.

The steady Harrison was his usual dominant self, striking out 13 batters and scattering three hits, while walking one in a shutout that was one out short of a complete game. He hit his pitch-count limit with two outs in the seventh, allowing Ben Sieracki to strike out the final batter.

“As a strikeout pitcher,” Harrison said, “I’m usually going to have a high pitch count.”

His 13 strikeouts, nine of which were swinging, was a high on the season. He threw three pitches for strikes, and used a disappearing changeup as an out pitch that had batters off-balance.

Some swings from the Eagles batters were wild, others dainty, bringing to mind images of someone swatting at a faraway cobweb with a broom. Harrison struck out at least one batter in every inning, and struck out the side in the second.

“I changed my pitch sequences quite a bit,” Harrison said. “Sometimes I could tell if they were looking for a pitch and they wouldn’t get it.”

That quick second inning didn’t allow for Douglas Byrd starter Jesse Dailey to have much rest between innings, and the Gryphons took advantage. Dailey was best when he threw his breaking pitches. The right-hander had a sharp curveball, and a sweeping slider that he used to collect seven strikeouts.

Lane Butler, the Gryphons’ No. 9 batter, spent the much of the first two innings watching Dailey. Butler knew that he wanted to part of anything but something straight from Dailey, so he stepped into the box ready to swing.

After taking a ball, Butler smashed a fastball through the left side of the infield to score Jake Philbeck for the game’s first run, and what proved to be all the Gryphons would need. Josh Pittman followed Butler’s RBI single with one of his own, and RMH would hold the 2-0 until adding a run in the fifth and sixth innings.

“I wanted to jump on his fastball,” Butler said. “I saw in warmups his curve looked good. He got me with a nasty one in my second at-bat, actually. So I was all over the fastball. I’ve been struggling at the plate, and I told myself that in the playoffs that I’m going to erase it and try to start new.”

The 10th-seeded Gryphons advance to the second round against the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 3 Northwood and No. 24 South Brunswick. RMH will be without starting catcher Zack Keeter for at least two weeks. Keeter, a senior and middle of the lineup mainstay, injured his arm in throwing drills over the weeked. Jamar Ellis, who has split time between right field and catcher this season, will be behind the plate moving forward.