West pitchers mow down East in Panhandle Baseball Classic

PANAMA CITY — Both teams in the Panhandle Baseball Classic were in a hurry to start Friday’s all-star game. Neither was in much of one to score runs, however.

The typically three-round Home Run Derby was cut short after the first go and the teams took the field before umpires were fully dressed. The nine-inning affair still took about three hours to complete and the West bunched together enough runs to win 6-0 over the East at William T. Weeks Field.

The West used eight pitchers, seven tossing one inning apiece, to hold the East to just two hits. Kevin Husum of Bay led off the bottom of the first with a double and Tallahassee Florida High’s Austin Cooksey singled in the sixth for the East’s offensive output.

“They had very good arms,” East coach Todd Harless said. “You expect that in an all-star game, but you don’t expect all of them to be sharp like they were. All of them had good velocity and seemed like they threw only three or four pitches each at-bat.”

Starter and Navarre hurler Brock Secondine was the winner, as he was the pitcher of record in the top of the second when Ben Hamilton’s RBI double gave the West a 1-0 lead. East starter Jesse Pace of Rutherford pitched two innings and took the loss.

The West tallied nine hits against five East pitchers. Most Valuable Player J.D. Little had three of those, including doubles in each of the fifth and seventh innings. He also pitched in the sixth inning and scored three runs, coming around once in the seventh to give the West a 5-0 lead.

The Fort Walton Beach product said his last game served as validation for a trying season.

“It was big for me because I went through some adversity,” Little said. “I struggled at points and it felt good to come out and have some success.”

Little signed  letter of intent to attend and play baseball for The Citadel, but said his ACT scores weren’t enough to help him qualify. He said he was looking at attending Western Kentucky to further his career.

He was among only two players with multiple hits on the night. Hamilton of Choctawhatchee added two hits, including a single in the fourth. The West went ahead 2-0 in the fourth on Cameron McNabb’s solo home run off Malone’s Derek Orshall.

The West scored at least one run against every East pitcher. The West scored twice in the seventh and added single runs in each of the second, fourth, fifth and ninth innings.

The East had one threat in the third, when it stranded a runner on third base. It had only one runner in scoring position the rest of the way, at second base, in the sixth.

Husum won the truncated Home Run Derby. He was the only one of six players to hit a homer. He hit one homer and both teams and coaches decided to end it after one round to start the game 30 minutes early.

• West   010 110 201 — 6 9 0
• East    000 000 000 — 0 2 1
• Secondine (W), Yano (2), Williams (3), Bass (4), Hamilton (5), Little (6), Brannen (7), Williams (8), Ratte (9) and McNabb and Horn (5); Pace (L), Orshall (3), Gutierrez (5), Bailey (7), Joseph (8), Bailey (9) and Irving. 2B: West 3 (little 2, Hamilton), East (Husum). HR: West (McNabb). LOB: West 11, East 6.