The opening weeks of the high school baseball season now seem so, so long ago, and Boyd-Buchanan has put behind its early dismal showing. Even all the rainouts and the games moved to somebody else's field -- because of unplayable home conditions -- have been closeted.
Still with a district makeup game to play, Boyd-Buchanan on Thursday locked up its fourth District 5-A championship in five years, shutting out Silverdale Baptist 5-0.
Clinching the regular-season title in their first home game in more than three weeks pretty much allowed the Buccaneers to erase the seven-game losing streak they endured early. They improved to 17-8 and 7-0 in the district.
The victory over the visiting Seahawks, the program that interrupted the Bucs' district championship string under coach Josh Rider, was thanks mostly to Brandon Willingham. The junior right-hander, whose fastball gets up there in the mid-80s, pitched a two-hitter for the shutout, striking out 12 while walking two.
"He was fantastic. You see what happens when a pitcher can get that curveball over on the first pitch," Silverdale coach Jonathan Adcock said of Willingham's performance. "We've seen guys that throw harder but he is always around the plate, and even when he got behind in the count he came back."
Willingham surrendered singles to Josiah Green (in the third) and River Crowther (in the fourth), while walking Green in the fifth and Blake Howard in the sixth.
"It seemed like when we got men on base it was always with two outs. That was the issue," Adcock said. "We didn't do a good job of getting men on base early."
The win was Willingham's fifth in six outings.
"I thought I pitched all right. The defense really allowed me to pitch like we wanted," he said.
"I didn't think he had his best stuff today, but it is par for the course with Brandon on the mound," Rider said. "He's a tough guy to try to manufacture an inning where you get two or three hits and push some runs across."
While the Bucs managed just seven hits off Michael Hawkins and Crowther, they were more than enough.
Colby Morgan and Hunter Payne each was 2-for-3, Morgan scoring twice and Payne picking up an RBI with a fifth-inning double that pretty much put the game out of reach with Willingham's showing.
"We have to learn to hit those No. 1 and No. 2 guys," Adcock said of his young team, which includes five sophomores and 14 freshmen.
The Seahawks are still in the running for second place and might secure it Monday and Tuesday in a series with senior-laden Grace Academy, but Arts & Sciences also remains in contention.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.