By Ed Hall
Associate Scout, PBR NC

Green Hope won a Southwest conference game against Apex Friendship by a score of 11 – 0 in a 5 inning game. Green Hope’s Liam Norris (2020) pitched 3 innings and was dominate getting 7 of the 9 outs in that time span with strike outs. He gave up 1 hit, walked 3, and allowed no runs.

Norris, a lanky left hander with premium arm strength showed an ability to get outs with his fastball.  Featuring a four-pitch mix, Norris is continuing to develop his secondary stuff, but that development process did not keep him from setting the tone on Tuesday night.  More on Norris’ outing and stuff will be available in the NC High School Scout Blog.

Green Hope has had trouble scoring runs recently but broke that trend by scoring 11 runs over 5 innings. Green Hope was led by Kevin Pitarra (C/INF, 2019), Sean McQuillan (OF, 2017, USC-Aiken commit), and Connor Knapp (2018) with 2 hits each.

The scoring started in the first as leadoff hitter Kevin Pitarra reached on an error.  Sean McQuillan followed with a triple to center field.  The big blow came in the second, where Green Hope scored four runs with 2 outs and nobody on.  After a Kohl Abrams (MIF, 2019) triple, he was brought home on a Connor Barrett (MIF, 2017, Ursinus College commit) RBI ground out.  Back to the top of the order, the Falcons put together 5 straight singles, finding the barrel several times.  Norris helped his cause with a line drive to center field scoring the sixth and seventh runs for Green Hope.

Norris worked three innings, giving way for RHP Ben Peoples (2018) to finish the game. Peoples retired all six batters he faced.  Very efficient, People flooded the zone with 11 strikes in his 18 pitches, coercing 3 fly balls and 3 ground outs.

Short stop Aaron Prickett (SS, 2018) had the lone hit (double) for Apex Friendship.

Apex Friendship                000 00X X            0  -  1  -  2
Green Hope                      254 0XX X            11 – 10 – 0

Win: Liam Norris               3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 7 K, 3 BB
Loss: Tyler Peters             2 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 2 K, 1 BB

Leading Hitters:

Green Hope:                      Kevin Pitarra – 2-3 with a double and 1 RBI
                                           Sean McQuillan – 2-3 with a triple, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored
                                           Connor Knapp – 2-3 with 2 RBI and a run scored
                                           Kohl Abrams, -- 1-1 with a triple and 2 runs scored