The season ended in success, even with the challenges of COVID-19.

By Ryan Walker, Staff Writer

The start of the Forester spring baseball season didn’t go as expected with a mix of losses and cancelations. Despite this, everything seemed to be going right for Huntington prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. 

To start the conference play, HU swept Marian, who was in the top half of the Crossroads League standings last season and were projected to finish fifth in the preseason conference polls. This perfect start in the conference was led by excellent pitching, as Mason Shinabery and Alex McCutcheon combined for 14 innings, six hits, one earned run, and 12 strikeouts. Both were having great starts to the season and were going to help the Foresters bring out another conference title before the season ended. 

On the offensive side, Daniel Lichty in the series went 4-8, and Jarret Gray went 3-9, driving in three runs. The Foresters had two home runs, one coming off of an opposite-field bomb from Owen Young, and one from Alex McCutcheon in a 3-5 effort on the day.

The third game of the series didn’t come easy, even with a comeback effort. The Foresters were down 12-5 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, where they started to tack on back-to-back three-run innings, bringing the deficit just to one run. As the Knights snagged a run in the eighth, HU was back on their feet, scoring two runs in the last inning to send it to extras. In the 10th, Jarret Gray hit a bouncer in the infield, sending Ian McCutcheon to the plate for the walk-off. Caleb Landrum shut down the last two innings on the mound in what was the most exciting and the final game of the season.

It’s unknown whether or not the four seniors will choose to use their extra given year of eligibility, but all four made an impact on the field this season before it concluded. The season ended in a blink of an eye and will force the seniors to make a tough decision to come back for another year next spring.