Prep baseball state tournament: Crusaders carrying the sword to Huntington

Blain Smith made his goals clear from the day he took over as Greater Beckley Christian’s head baseball coach.

“I met Coach Blain the end of my sophomore summer and his vision for Greater Beckley has been going to the state tournament,” catcher Paul Fox said. “And honestly, I think we all put in the work throughout this winter. This winter we put in a lot of work that went unseen and unheard of, but it’s definitely showed up and showed out now for all of us.”

Last week came the realization of Smith’s vision when the Crusaders beat Webster County 7-6 in a winner-take-all Class A Region 3 co-championship. With it, they clinched the first state tournament berth in team history.

The Crusaders (23-13) earned the No. 5 seed and will face No. 4 Gilmer County in the quarterfinals Saturday at about 1 p.m. at Marshall University’s Jack Cook Field in Huntington.

Since the win over Webster County, everyone involved has been enjoying the moment.

“I liken it to like when you’re a little kid on Christmas morning,” Smith said Thursday after the team returned from a tuneup road game, a 9-3 loss to Class AA state tournament qualifier Logan.

“I’m just honored to be a part of the team, you know,” senior pitcher/shortstop Eli Gunter said. “I’m just glad we can go to states together. I made states in two other sports but didn’t win them, so I really need to win this one.”

Gunter was a member of the state tournament golf team in October and was a starter on the boys basketball team that finished as Class A state runner-up.

The Greater Beckley community has rallied around the team, including a proper sendoff to Huntington on Friday morning. A successful GoFundMe page (https://www.gofundme.com/f/supporting-gbcs-baseball-state-tournament-trip) has also helped in raising funds for the team’s trip.

“The school’s been supporting us all the way,” Smith said. “A lot of people, friends, family, these kids’ friends and family. I mean, we’ve raised a lot of money this week to help bring these boys to have a great trip to Huntington. Very grateful, very blessed that the school and community have come together like this for us. It’s been awesome.”

Gunter is the Crusaders’ leading hitter at .479 and has stolen 35 bases. Fox is batting .395 with 32 runs batted in and 29 scored. Isaiah Lewis has scored 38 runs and stolen 28 bases, and has 10 outfield assists.

Carter Hajash, an Independence transfer, has been a valuable addition for the Crusaders. He is batting .417 and has an OPS of 1.301 to go with eight home runs, nine doubles, 39 RBIs, 39 runs and 38 stolen bases.

On the mound, Hajash is 11-3 with 1.90 earned run average. He has 82 strikeouts in 73.2 innings.

Greater Beckley faced Gilmer (27-6) on March 24 in Beckley. The Titans came away with a 12-6 victory in weather that was more suited for late season football than for baseball.

“You know how baseball is,” Smith said. “When you’re playing when it’s 40 degrees outside, it’s a little bit different than now, when it’s about 80.

“Coach (Jacob) Wolfe and those guys are a good team. They had a tough, tough region to get out of, beating Man. And that team was coming on at the end. They have a really good pitcher, (Kolten) Holbert. He throws the ball pretty hard. But we think we’ve kind of been gearing up and getting ready for velocity. I think it’ll come down to doing the little things.”

Holbert is 7-3 with a 2.16 ERA. Remington Huffman is 8-0 in 12 appearances and has a 1.96 ERA, and Jacob Stewart is 5-2 with a 1.97 ERA. The staff ERA is 2.77.

Holbert is also the Titans’ offensive leader, batting .480 with 12 doubles, seven triples, four home runs and 52 runs batted in. He also has scored 54 runs.

In the regular season meeting, the Crusaders committed six errors that led to eight unearned runs.

“I think the first game was definitely, you know, toward the beginning of the season, we didn’t have everything quite where it needed to be,” Fox said. “Now I feel like we’re kind of on the up and up, which is where we need to be at this time, and I think that as long as we play a good game and play our game, it’ll be a great matchup.”

Saturday’s winner will play the St. Joseph-Trinity Christian winner in the semifinals Thursday at 10 a.m.

“I’m so proud of the effort this group’s put together all year,” Smith said. “They’ve carried the sword, they’ve been family all year, they’ve buffaloed into every storm. I’m super excited to take that 111-mile journey to Huntington together.”