East Hamilton pitcher Nick Fahler delivers to the plate as Bradley Central plays East Hamilton at the Hixson baseball field Monday, Mar. 16, 2015, in Chattanooga.Nick Fahler learned a year ago as a primary catcher what pitches work when.
When he’s not behind the plate this year, though, he’s on the mound putting that knowledge and a fall season with Brandon Turner’s Exposure Baseball to work.
The senior, a Carson-Newman signee, put it all to good use Monday, putting East Hamilton back in the District 5-AAA race by leading the Hurricanes to a 7-1 victory over Bradley Central and the Bears’ ace, Ty King.
“You have to give him a ton of credit. He was really on top of his game, and I give a lot of credit to Josh Coppinger, our pitching coach, who has taken on more responsibility this year,” East Hamilton coach Steve Garland said.
The game was originally scheduled for Monday afternoon at lightless East Hamilton, but dugouts are still being constructed, so the Hurricanes’ home opener was put off until Wednesday when they host McMinn County for a district makeup game. Before that,the Hurricanes will face Bradley again tonight, this one at Bradley.
It was McMinn that put East Hamilton behind the 8-ball a week earlier with a seventh-inning rally and a 3-2 victory.
“Any 5-AAA win is big. We stubbed our toe last Monday, so we knew we didn’t have much margin for error in the district standings,” Garland said.
“I thought I pitched well,” Fahler said. “I wanted to get ahead and take control of the game. Ty and I are pretty good friends and I knew I would have to out-perform him. And our offense and defense backed me up.”
Fahler used his fastball early and added variety in the later innings, going to a curve, a sinker and the occasional changeup.
“As it got later, I knew I had to break some curveballs,” he said.
And he did, several coming on two-strike pitches.
Part of the credit for his performance should go to catcher Tyler Holloway, who also caught a pair of would-be base-stealers.
“Any time you have a well-pitched game, a lot of credit should go to the pitcher’s battery mate,” Garland said. “He helped our pitchers receiving the ball, blocking the ball and then throwing those two guys out (one at third, one at second).”
The way Fahler was pitching, East Hamilton might’ve made its 3-1 lead through five innings hold up, but the Hurricanes broke it open in the bottom of the sixth, plating four runs.
“We hit well. I liked our guys’ approach at the plate tonight,” Garland said.
The Hurricanes were led by Matt Watters, who also had a nice game defensively at third base; Kyle Cox, Nick Woods, who also picked up his second save; and Fahler. Each had two hits with Cox, Fahler, Josh Aslinger and Garrett Stone adding doubles. It was Stone’s sixth-inning, two-run double that pretty much put the game out of reach.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.