ABINGDON, Va.
Hunter Combs is a boy of few words.
Ask him how the game went and he shrugs his shoulders.
Ask him how his Honaker 9-and-10-year-old All-Star team can turn things around after a disastrous first day of state tournament pool play and he wipes that sweaty mop of hair away from his eyes, smiles and says: “Just keep playing hard.”
It can be that simple for the Tigers, one of 16 teams locked in a pool-play struggle for the state Little League championship.
Friday’s 28-0 loss to an overpowering Great Falls team is a setback. But don’t tell that to Combs or the rest of the Tigers who, despite the final score, managed to walk off the field with smiles and back pats.
Combs - who shrugs at all questions lobbed his way and looks nervously for his family to help him when a notepad and pen sit inches from his face - played a big part in keeping the team loose and the players’ lips curled.
Already down by almost three touchdowns in the third inning, a Great Falls bloop to center field dropped right in front of Combs. The 10-year-old, without batting an eye, snatched the ball of the grass and fired a rocket (and, yes, we’ll admit that sports writers are prone to hyperbole, but Combs’ throw wasn’t a rainmaking lob, but a laser-like zip) to third, gunning down Great Falls’ Bennett Morris as he tried to slide into the bag.
It was the third out of yet another long inning.
It brought the Honaker fans to their feet.
It brought coaches out of the dugout to high five Combs.
It had his teammates on the field rushing in to pat his back, slap his shoulder and inform anybody who was within earshot that Combs has an arm that is not to be trifled with.
“That’s a throw,” one of his teammates said as they scurried back into the dugout.
Another corrected him.
“That’s a gun,” he said.
Combs, still looking for a way out of the interview, kept it short and simple as he tried to describe what was going through his head as he grabbed the ball and noticed Morris trucking to third.
“Um,” he says, fingers still nervously fidgeting at his follicles, “just throw him out.”
Even if his team was down 17-0 with only one hit under its belt at the time of the play, it helped show, for a brief second, which Great Falls speedy runners could be nailed.
During the first two innings they treated the base paths like runways at Dulles Airport – taking an extra base on every wild pitch and every dropped ball. When Combs gunned down Morris, it slowed it down. Just a tad though.
Nobody has to tell Combs or the Tigers that giving up 11 runs in the first inning isn’t going to win you many ball games. Nobody has to tell them that losing your fundamental baseball skills in the state tournament only buys you a ticket back home. Everybody knew going through seven pitchers in a four-inning game doesn’t bode well for the next few days.
But Combs says he knows the secret to Honaker turning it around today when pool play starts up again at 9 a.m.
“Just play as hard as we can,” he says before walking to the safety of his family.
It’s that simple, really.
And all it took was a boy of few words to tell the Tigers everything they need to know.
jsacco@bristolnews.com I Twitter: @Sacco_BHCSports I (276) 645-2572
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