There is a little bit of Lawrence County in Huntington, or at least in the Hounds.

Friday, August 25, 2000

There is a little bit of Lawrence County in Huntington, or at least in the Hounds.

The Huntington Hounds was a summer youth baseball team comprised of talent from around the Tri-State. Three of the players are from Lawrence County: Jarrod Keaton of Coal Grove High School, Justin Meyers of Symmes Valley High School, and Stuart Shepherd of Fairland High School.

"We had a great time," Keaton said. "We got to play on some nice college fields and nice minor league fields. We were playing at night and in front of a bunch of scouts. There was no problem getting guys up to play. It was a different atmosphere."

Keaton and mates played on the university fields at West Virginia, Bowling Green, Middle Tennessee State, and Delaware.

The Hounds won the National Amateur Baseball Federation regional in Altoona, Penn. in August.

Huntington won its first three games in Altoona. They beat Altoona First 4-0 in the opener, the Ohio Eagles 13-4 in game two, and Mt. Airy, N.C. 7-3 in the third game.

"It took half the season for us to come together as a team, but after that, we played some pretty good ball," Keaton said. "We played against some good competition, also. Some of the guys on other teams have already signed with Notre Dame and Ohio State."

Meyers was the starting and winning pitcher in the game over the Ohio Eagles and Keaton was 2-4 with an RBI.

White Oak battled for two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to knock off the Hounds 8-7 in the fourth game of the round robin format. Shepherd worked in relief.

The Hounds got a measure of revenge by beating White Oak in the fifth game 9-5. Keaton was again 2-4 with a pair of RBI.

In the championship game, the Hounds again faced Mt. Airy and again the Hounds prevailed, this time 15-2. Keaton again was 2-4 and a run scored.

By winning the regional, the Hounds advanced to Wilmington, Delaware, for the NABF World Series where they finished one win from the championship game. The series was made up of two five-team round robin formats with the winners meeting for the championship.

In game one, the Hounds fell 2-0 to the North Virginia Baseball Academy. They evened their record with a 14-1 win in game two over the Com Air Jets.

Again the Hounds were shut out in game three 4-0 to the Indiana Barnstormers.

In the fourth and final game the Hounds shut out the Grand Slam Diamonds 2-0 to even their record at 2-2.