AMHERST — Haydon Almond stood on the baseball field here Friday night, where he had just wrapped his first complete-game performance of the season, and thought back to the events of the last week.
The Brookville senior lefty was dominant in a 3-2 victory over Amherst, but he wasn’t focused on his own performance. He wanted to talk about his team.
That was the sentiment all around, as Amherst welcomed the Bees. They stood on the field, two storm-torn teams. They both have had their seasons upended by a tornado that swept through the Timberlake area and then picked up speed, becoming an EF3 tornado by the time it slammed into the Elon community of Amherst.
Friday night, both teams paused to remember residents affected by the storm. At the main gate, volunteers collected donations to residents of both the Brookville and Amherst communities.
Then they played ball. The game, though, took a backseat.
“This is the tightest team I’ve ever been on,” Almond said. “We’re all great, great friends. Hang out in school, hang out in public. And were really bonding right now with the whole tornado and stuff. It’s really bringing us together.”
Baseball can do that sometimes.
"We’re talking about people that lost their homes, lost their businesses,” Lancers coach Joey Crawford said. “So we wanted to get together and do something for those people. … The whole goal of the night was to raise as much money as we could.”
The amount of money raised Friday night wasn’t immediately clear, but Crawford said the school likely received well over $1,000. Even the umpires helped out by donating to relief efforts the money they would have made calling the game.
“We wanted to make sure that tonight was more than just about baseball,” Crawford said.
But when they did play baseball, Almond stole the show. He fanned 10 batters, settled down after a rough second inning and held the Lancers (6-5) to just four hits.
The Bees fell behind 2-0 after the second frame, when Amherst scored two runs on a passed ball, with Tyler Knight and Tyler Hargis crossing the plate.
The Bees (6-5) responded with three runs in the bottom of the third. Almond brought in one run on a sacrifice groundout, and Jaycob Carwile delivered the tying and go-ahead runs with a single to right field.
Carwile and BHS leadoff hitter Zach Thompson each went 3 for 3.
“It took us a second to get started. It wasn’t one of our best games,” Thompson said. “But once we got in our head the mindset that we were gonna win the game, we just started playing baseball.”
Hargis, the Amherst starter, struck out seven in six innings.
It was the second straight win for Almond, who improved to 3-2 on the season and lowered his ERA to 1.40.
“I think Haydon is one of the best pitchers in [the Seminole] district,” Crawford said.
The coach has been impressed by his young sophomore pitcher in Hargis, too.
“He’s gonna be really good,” Crawford said. “In two years, if he does what he’s supposed to do between now and his senior year, he’s gonna be really good. … He’s had one bad game against LCA. Other than that, he’s pitched his tail off.”
After a rough second inning, Almond settled down and struck out the side in the third. He got out of several jams along the way, but retired the side in order in the seventh with the Bees clinging to the one-run lead.
“It’s always great to have the support,” Almond added, “to help out when you’ve been beaten down. I know Amherst went through it just like we did, so it’s great to come out here and play baseball after that accident.”