Heading into Tuesday’s matchup against Foothill, the first game of the Jim Morely Classic, Enterprise junior Slader Johnson pitched a total of 11 innings throughout his high school career.
All 11 innings came during his sophomore season, and the last time Johnson took the mound was nearly a year ago. But on Tuesday, Johnson got the nod as the team’s starter.
Enterprise manager Chase Dillon kept his expectations low. The Hornets (10-6-1) were planning on emptying the bullpen against this tough Cougar (11-4) squad — a team that at one point in the season held the No. 9 spot in the California rankings.
Johnson had different plans.
Dillon didn’t dip into the pen until the sixth inning, after Johnson had tossed 5.2 innings in which he gave up three walks, no runs, and most impressively, no hits. Johnson also came around to score at the top of the first after slapping a ball to right field on the first pitch of the game.
But, despite not giving up a single hit, Dillon needed to make a change. Johnson’s score in the first was the only run of the game, and he had just thrown his 81st pitch. So, Dillon called on junior Wayde Hutchings to take the mound for the last four outs.
“That was a tough decision,” Dillon said. “My coaches put it in my head that, hey, if we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it.”
The Cougars also had a runner in scoring position and were making great contact with the ball.
“I believe Colton Douglas was up and (he) put one on the warning track and one pretty deep in center field so my thought process was, third time through, anything can happen,” Dillon said. “We went with Wayde and it’s perfect because Wayde has the highest velocity on the team.”
Dillon’s move paid off.
After seeing a low velocity pitcher in Johnson, Hutchings’ mid-80s heater blew the Cougars away in just 12 pitches, and the Hornets walked away with a 1-0 win and a combined no-hitter against the Northern Section’s No. 1 ranked team.
“My expectation was that I was going to get hit a lot, but I hit my spots like I was supposed to,” Johnson said. “It feels great; I just wasn’t expecting it.”
Dillon didn’t set the bar too high either.
“I didn’t have a lot (of expectations) to be completely honest,” Dillon said. “This is a league game in a tournament, so it doesn’t have a lot of binding stuff to it besides just a simple rating on MaxPreps.”
The Hornets knew they needed to play a near-perfect game if they wanted the win, and that’s exactly what they did. Only five Cougars reached base, and the Hornets completed all seven innings with no errors on defense.
“That was an absolute clean game,” Dillon said. “Our positioning coach had the outfielders moving exactly where they needed to be. Obviously, there were some hard-hit balls that Hayden Wilkes, Jerrik Melton and Justin Harcus, they were able to track down, get under the ball and catch it.”
The outfield trio had its work cut out for it, but all three maintained their focus and prevented any fly balls from touching grass.
Yet, it was Johnson’s performance that really pushed the Hornets to victory.
Johnson has a .491 batting average with a team-high 26 hits and he’s swiped 19 bags. He won’t crush one over the wall, but he’s the type of player to get on base, and he knows how to capitalize his opportunities on the base path.
On Tuesday, he showed off a completely different skillset that left some fans at the ballpark wondering if the Hornets have found their new ace.
It was a strategic, yet risky move to throw Johnson in against Foothill, but it paid off for Dillon. Foothill recently competed in the Fresno Easter Classic where it faced some elite talent.
Dillon used that to his advantage.
“We figured they’ve been in Fresno for the past four and half plus days facing top of the line arms, and we were gonna go and throw a good pitcher that just doesn’t meet the same miles per hour per someone down in Fresno,” Dillon said. “We were just going to try to keep them off balance all day, let them hit weak fly balls, and that’s exactly what they did.”
Foothill junior Kayden Williams was electric on the mound for the Cougars, striking out 12 Hornets and giving up one unearned run, but the Hornets only needed that one run to earn the win.
While the Hornets couldn’t pull off the win over Central Valley in the second game of the day, defeating Foothill is a much-needed confidence boost for a young Enterprise team heading into a filthy stretch of league games.
The Hornets will host Etna at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, April 8 to finish off the Jim Morely Classic before closing out the season with three three-game series against Chico, Foothill and Pleasant Valley.
“This team hasn’t changed since our first practice,” Dillon said. “If they can just enjoy the game, play for each other, and grind out at-bats, we’re going to be good.”
Top Stats:
Brett Abrams is a sports reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. He covers high school and local sports in the Redding area. Reach out to Brett with any sports tips or news on X (formerly Twitter) @brabrams_ or by email at Brett.Abrams@Redding.com. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Enterprise baseball pulls off combined no-hitter in upset win over Foothill
Reporting by Brett Abrams, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
