By Dan Smith

Charles Henderson High overcame a three-run deficit to defeat a strong Class 7A Hewitt-Trussville squad Friday night, as Hunter Reeves pitched a complete game and Bryson Gandy had four hits in a 6-5 win at Troy University’s Riddle Pace Field.

CHHS improves to 6-1 on the season with the win in the annual Terry Sikes Memorial Tournament, while Hewitt-Trussville drops to 5-2.

Reeves struck out the final batter of the game as the Huskies had runners on second and third with two outs in the top of the seventh inning to seal the deal.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of these guys,” said first-year CHHS Head Coach William Teal. “We’re good at putting ourselves in a hole, but the fight in this group that they have shown since the G.W. Long loss last week has been tremendous.Hunter Reeves was phenomenal. He did not have his best stuff, but he acted as a bulldog and it was really impressive to see. That’s a good team we just beat.”

Hewitt-Trussville had taken an early 5-2 lead, but Reeves bowed up down the stretch, allowing no runs over the last five innings. The right-hander ran his record to 3-0, striking out five including the final out of the game.

The Huskies took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when the leadoff batter Tyler Tolbert tripled to left field and scored on a double by Keegan Morrow.

CHHS went up 2-1 in the bottom of the first inning as Bryson Gandy led off with an infield hit and scored on an infield ground out, Hunter Reeves reached on a fielder’s choice and courtesy runner Jabronski WIlliams on back-to-back singles by Jackson Murphy and a clutch hit-and-run single by Charlie Tisdale.

The Huskies scored four runs in the top of the second inning to go up 5-1 on only two hits and aided by three CHHS errors.

Jamison Stennis doubled, Grayson Cash reached on an error, Davis Burgin walked, Nick Jackson reached on an error, and all four scored in the inning for the 5-1 advantage.

The Trojans bounced back with two more runs in the bottom of the second inning, as Carson Tucker walked and scored on a two-out triple by Gandy. Nick Lewis then singled up the middle to score Gandy and cut the lead to 5-4.

Chase Hartley led off the bottom of the fifth inning by reaching first when the third baseman made an errant throw, Reeves singled to right and Williams ran for Reeves, and both runners scored on a hard hit grounder by Devin Suddith which the shortstop misplayed, and CHHS led 6-5.

Hewitt-Trussville threatened in the top of the seventh inning as Morrow singled and Stennis was hit by a pitch, both runners moved to second and third on a ground out, and with two outs Reeves bore down and struck out the final batter to end the game.

CHHS collected eight hits on the night as Gandy was 4-for-4, Reeves and Lewis had two hits, while Jackson Murphy and Tisdale had one hit each.

CHHS returns to action Saturday morning in the final day of the Terry Sikes Memorial Tournament, with a 10:30 a.m. game against Houston Academy at Hogan’s Hole, followed by a 1 p.m. game against Robertsdale at Troy University’s Riddle Pace Field.

“We’ve just got to play our baseball,” said Teal. “If we play our baseball, we can win big games. Tonight showed us that we are capable of beating a good team. We’re going to be tested this weekend, and we knew that. I cannot tell you how proud I am of these guys, and how we fought and clawed. It makes you love what you do. It’s been a good night.”