PREP BASEBALL: Hornets stung by Chipley in Class 1A state championship

FORT MYERS — The Hornets had come back from big deficits before. But with a state championship on the line Thursday, nine runs proved to be a bit too much. 

Chipley pounced all over top-ranked Lafayette for a nine-run third inning and cruised the rest of the way, riding out a 10-1 win to claim the 1A state championship. 

After getting back to the state championship game for the first time since his team won it all in 2016, Lafayette head coach Tim Hanson said Chipley was simply the better team at Hammond Stadium.

“They came out and stroked it,” Hanson said. “We got to where we just had to rely on the fastball, and they were ready for it. They just banged it.”

The game started off with each side trading barbs in the first inning. Chipley (22-7) landed its first four batters on base via a pair of singles sandwiched between two walks, highlighted by first baseman Cade Culbreth’s RBI single, scoring Rayce Griffin from third.

However, Lafayette (22-5) came right back in the bottom of the first, sparking a two-out rally that culminated with first baseman Lane Brock’s RBI single to score right fielder Matthew Jenkins.

Unfortunately for the Hornets, it’d be all the help the offense could give starting pitcher Hyatt Richardson. The team’s ace throughout the season after going 9-0 with a 1.39 ERA, Richardson got through the second inning in quick order before getting rocked in the third. 

After giving up a leadoff walk, Richardson got the next two batters out before the onslaught began. The Tigers alternated singles and walks for the next four batters, pushing across a pair of runs in the process. 

That’s when Hanson made his first mound visit of the inning. Hoping to loosen his ace up a bit, Hanson said he had a joke in his back pocket for the occasion. 

“Tried to make a joke or lighten him up,” Hanson said. “Just don’t be serious. Said ‘Hey, we’re still in this. We’ve still got a lot of baseball left to play.

“His personality is calm, which is what you want from a pitcher… I just told him, they’re just hitting the ball.’”
It didn’t work. Richardson then issued another two consecutive walks, the second coming with the bases loaded, before another pair of RBI singles finally brought Hanson to the mound to take his star pitcher out of the game. Richardson finished with nine runs allowed on six hits and six walks to go with his three strikeouts.

For the sophomore righty, the performance was a letdown that he didn’t have any answers for. 

“I’m not really sure,” Richardson said. “I just felt like I had to put it right there in the spot, right there in the middle. And as soon as I did, they hit it.”

Hanson, however, said he knew what his young ace was going through in the moment. After joking a bit with Richardson, Hanson said he told the right-hander that he was one of the biggest catalysts for the team in reaching the championship game.

“Sometimes you have it, and then sometimes the other team just has it,” Hanson said. “I can’t say enough about him. For him to be a sophomore, he’s had a great year. I just hate it for him that it ended like this.”

In relief of Richardson came freshman Garrett Taylor, who promptly allowed a 2-RBI triple to deep center field against Culbreth in his second at-bat of the inning. After an RBI double from designated hitter Thad Brown, Taylor finally ended the inning with a strikeout, sparing Lafayette from facing down a run-rule deficit. 

Jenkins, one of the many senior leaders on the team, said that inning was obviously the turning point in the afternoon. 

“Third inning was rough,” Jenkins said. “We couldn’t make any plays. It was just a bad third inning, obviously.”

The Hornets got close a few times to trimming the deficit. They left runners on the corners in the bottom of the fourth only for center fielder JT Cook to fly out to center on the first pitch he saw from Chipley starter Bryson Howard, who pitched the whole way for the Tigers, striking out six and allowing five hits with one walk. While Lafayette had a couple of hard-hit balls out to center in the fifth, CHS center fielder Blaine Woodham made a diving catch on a shallow line drive to keep Lafayette at bay. 

The Hornets could only muster a single baserunner through the final three innings, coming off a leadoff single from Taylor in the seventh. However, Howard worked his way through it, inducing a game-inning fly out to Woodham in center for the final out of the season. 

For Jenkins, the end of his high school career was bittersweet, at best. He said all could offer now was advice to the younger players on the team. 

“You’ve gotta hit. Gotta play good defense, and you’ve gotta hit,” he said. “They say defense wins games, but you’ve got to be able to hit to score runs.”
For Hanson, the end of the season marks a close to a senior-laden group that produced district and regional championships. He said he hopes that the advice of graduating seniors can sink in with his club come opening day next season.

“I think it looks good,” Hanson said. “We’ve got some young guys coming up from JV that are some pretty good ballplayers. I don’t ever like the word ‘rebuild,’ I think you’ve got to get what you get and just try to do the best you can with it.”