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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

Last year an upstart Glenn baseball team defeated Davie three times in a span of seven days.
Last week the War Eagles did the same thing to Glenn. After slaughtering the Bobcats 13-3 and 12-1 in the final week of the regular season, Davie beat them for the third time in a week in the first round of the CPC Tournament on April 28. This time fourth-seeded Davie built a 6-0 lead before settling for a 6-3 home victory over No. 5 Glenn.
Coy James set the tone in the first inning by smacking a double and scoring on an error.
Davie took complete control in the third. Brandon Forrest singled, James was hit by a pitch and Hunter Potts was intentionally walked to load the bases. Forrest scored on Coston Colamarino’s flyout, and then Logan Allen made it 4-0 with a two-run single.
Sophomore Colin Harrison stood tall on the mound, going six innings, holding Glenn to two runs and three hits and lifting his record to 5-1. Colamarino took over in the seventh and got the save.
Colamarino and Forrest had two hits each as Davie extended their winning streak (seven) to the longest in six years. (The 2019 squad won nine straight.) While Colamarino laced two doubles, James doubled, walked and was beaned twice. Hunter Potts drew two walks and scored twice.
Davie 3, West 2
Top-seeded West Forsyth did not commit an error in the semifinals at Reagan on April 29. West junior pitcher Greyson Jones walked none and struck out 12 in a 90-pitch complete game.
Somehow, some way, the War Eagles pulled out a dramatic win.
“West is a very good team and they played real well,” coach Joey Anderson said. “They had their opportunities. We just took advantage of ours and they didn’t.”
Davie’s offense went down 1-2-3 in the top of the first. In the bottom half, the first two West batters reached base. But just when it looked as if West was going to hold the upper hand for the sixth meeting in a row, Davie leveled the ship and ultimately saw a reversal of fortunes. Davie starter Tucker Hobbs escaped the first unscathed by inducing an infield popup, a flyout to left and a strikeout looking.
Davie never trailed, taking a 1-0 lead in the second when Allen singled to center on a fullcount pitch and Ty Sain followed with a double.
Sain has emerged as a sophomore first baseman. He paid his dues by seeing just 13 plate appearances in the first 17 games. He got his first start April 9 and has been a regular in the lineup for the past nine games.
“Ty had a huge hit,” Anderson said. “He got a hold of an inside fastball that the guy left belt high. It just kept carrying over the left fielder’s head. Ty’s done really well. He’s a bigger target (at first base) and he’s made some big plays for us. We started this winning streak when Ty started playing.”
Davie pushed the lead to 2-0 in the third. After fouling off four pitches, James tripled to right-center. Two batters later, Hunter Potts drove him in with a single to center.
Hobbs got out of a bases-loaded mess in the fourth, thanks to an unassisted double play by shortstop James. In the West fifth, the Titans scored on a bases-loaded walk, prompting Anderson to turn to his bullpen. Parker Davis answered the call, coaxing a comebacker for the third out on his third offering.
“Tucker was going the third time through the lineup and they had had some good swings on him,” Anderson said. “I didn’t have a great feeling with the next guy and we had Parker ready, so we said: ‘Let’s go with Parker and give them a different look.’ And it worked out for us.”
Davie picked up much-needed insurance in the top of the seventh. Hayden Potts doubled and advanced to third on a passed ball. Anderson made a move by summoning sophomore Blake French as a pinch-hitter. French validated the decision by lifting a sac fly to center that gave Davie a 3-1 lead.
“I just figured Blake gave me a better shot at hitting the ball deep, and that’s what he did,” he said. “He drove it to center field and drove it deep enough to score Hayden to give us a little cushion, and that ended up being the game-winner.”
Davie held on by a thread in a tense bottom of the seventh. Davis gave up a walk and a single, but he punched out the next man looking. An error loaded the bases and a sac bunt cut Davie’s lead to one and put runners at second and third with two outs. But Davie’s arms were clutch all game and West bounced out to third baseman Hayden Potts to end the game.
Hobbs threw 40 of 64 pitches for strikes to pick up his fifth win, tying Harrison for first in that category. Davis recorded the last seven outs in his 15th mound appearance (eight starts, seven relief outings).
“Both of them threw excellent games,” Anderson said. “There were some pitches that looked like strike threes and I thought we had gotten out of certain situations and it didn’t go our way. But they didn’t let it get them down. They just kept coming back, refocused and went after the next guy. If we needed a ground ball, they got a ground ball. We played very well defensively.”
Davie managed seven hits against the hard-throwing Jones, including two from Hayden Potts. James, Hunter Potts, Allen, Sain and Forrest all had one.
Notes: The Titans (20-4) had won nine straight, had outscored CPC competition 145-18 and had outscored all opponents 219-58. … Davie stopped a five-game losing streak in the series, including 3-2 and 7-4 defeats in the regular season. … Davie’s eighth straight win lifted its record to 14-12. “Greyson threw a great game, but we got guys on base and got big hits,” Anderson said. “We kept putting the pressure on.”
Reagan 9, Davie 0
Davis raised his game to another level, but Davie had a meltdown in the bottom of the sixth and lost to a perennial power in the tournament final at Reagan on May 1.
Davis held a 21-4 opponent to one run over five innings. The wheels finally came off in the sixth, when Reagan poured across eight runs.
Davis limited the Raiders to one earned run over 5.2 innings in a courageous 101-pitch effort.
“Parker had an excellent game,” Anderson said. “He gave up some hits (seven), but he always came back and got a ground ball or made a pitch that got him out of the inning.”
No. 2 Reagan got on the board with a single and a triple in the first. In the sixth, the Raiders sent 11 batters to the plate and scored eight times on five hits, a walk, a hit batsman and a costly error. That’s how fast it can happen.
“We played really well defensively until the sixth,” he said.
Davie had a meager two hits against junior lefthander Asa Coplin, who covered seven innings in an economical 81 pitches. For Davie’s offense, it was the same story as the two regular-season meetings, when Davie lost 1-0 and 8-0.
Davie’s only chance was the second, when Allen singled and Hayden Potts walked with one out. Davie’s only other hit came from Forrest.
“(Coplin) was really good,” Anderson said. “I think we only touched second base once, maybe twice.”
Notes: Reagan wound up with 10 hits against three Davie pitchers. … The Raiders stretched their winning streak to 12 and beat Davie for the sixth straight time. … Davie reached the tournament final for the first time in six years; it lost 6-5 to West in 2019. … Davie’s top batting averages: James .615, Forrest .375, Allen .354, Colamarino .346, Drew Krause .338, Hunter Potts .294, Hayden Potts .289, Carson Queen .283. … Four War Eagles will play at the next level. James will suit up for Ole Miss or sign professionally after the July draft. Krause is headed to North Carolina Wesleyan, Hunter Potts to Montreat and Hobbs to Guilford Tech CC.