SPORTS Hanover baseball rolls to second straight state title

ZACH JOACHIM Richmond Times-Dispatch

SPOTSYLVANIA — After losing 15 seniors from its 2022 statetitle-winning outfit, the Hanover baseball team in 2023 fought through regular-season adversity that included five consecutive defeats in April.

But those hiccups were a far cry from Saturday’s Class 4 title game at Spotsylvania High, where senior Jack Bowles’s big day at the plate and freshman Brady Elrod’s diving, game-sealing catch helped the Hawks lift their second consecutive Class 4 championship trophy on the heels of a 9-0 victory over Smithfield High.

“We had some really good times early on, and we had some really low lows,” said Hawks coach Tyler Kane, whose team played one of the toughest schedules in the state and entered the Region 4B tournament as the No. 8 seed.

“This group found a way to battle through a lot of adversity, basically turning over our entire roster. They bought in and played for each other.

“I’m so proud of these guys, how they battled and fought through the highs and through the lows. “

The championship is Hanover’s fifth in program history following crowns in 2013, 2014, 2016 and last year.

The Hawks did not give up a single run in the Class 4 tournament behind a deep pitching sta and sterling defensive play spearheaded by sure-handed shortstop Tyler Woodson.

On Saturday, it was left-handed starter Evan Nix and right-handed reliever Cole Elrod combining for the shutout.

Nix worked 3 2/3 innings and, though he walked five, did not surrender a hit until the fourth inning when he gave way to Elrod to shut the door.

At that point, the Hawks were up 3-0 following a three-run bottom of the third keyed by a twoRBI single by Bowles, who finished 3 for 4 with three RBIs and scored one of his three runs on a wild pitch later in the inning to cap Hanover’s initial o ensive outburst.

Kane lauded the leadership of his seven seniors in guiding the program through its early-season low points.

“It’s just the belief from day one,” Bowles said of what drove Hanover’s success despite so much roster turnover.

“We (the seniors) just came together and made a conscious decision between us that, we may not win every single game, but we’re going to control everything that we can control, and the results will take care of themselves.

“It was just believing in the guys. It’s more than just what happens on the field, it’s everything o the field.”

The Hawks tacked on two-spots in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings while Cole Elrod found a rhythm on the mound, retiring the side in order in the fifth and sixth innings.

In the fourth, Brady Elrod’s sharp single got the party started. Then freshman outfielder Anthony Kinard II laid down a picture-perfect bunt down the firstbase line, forcing a throwing error and allowing the younger Elrod to score.

Kinard scored later in the frame on another throwing error to make it 5-0. In the fifth, Bowles singled, then senior two-way standout Nolan Williamson thundered an RBI-triple into the right-center gap that one-hoped its way to the fence. Cole Elrod’s sacrifice fly scored Williamson for 7-0.

And in the sixth, Bowles was at the center of the action once again. His RBI-single to left made it 8-0, then another run crossed home on a fielder’s choice after a rundown between second and third.

Though the Hawks were cruising and their dugout and jampacked, powder-blue stands were ready to explode at this juncture, they had one more moment of adversity to overcome.

Smithfield threatened to ruin the shutout with runners on second and third and two down in the top of the seventh. A Packers hitter drove what looked a shot o the bat to the right-center gap.

Kane, and much of the Hawks coaching sta and dugout, looked to center fielder Bowles as the only one with a chance to make the grab.

Then Brady Elrod, who secured a similarly jaw-dropping catch in the state semifinal, came flying into the picture, laying out to make the grab before running to join the powder-blue dogpile behind the mound.