HENDERSONVILLE − Tuscola baseball remembered the bitterness it felt after losing to West Henderson on April 25 for the Mountain 7 conference championship.
It also wanted to face Falcons ace and NC State signee Truitt Manuel again, who struck out 14 batters while allowing eight hits, one walk and three runs in a loss during the regular season.
"Our guys wanted Truitt," Tuscola coach Zack Shepherd said. "Because you know the old saying, to be the man, you gotta beat the man. They didn't want to beat somebody else. They wanted to beat Truitt."
No. 10 Tuscola capitalized on the opportunity in the third round of the NCHSAA 3A playoffs. The Mountaineers scored seven runs in the first four innings to defeat No. 2 West Henderson (21-5), the defending state champions, 7-2 on Tuesday.
Tuscola (20-5) will face the winner of No. 3 North Davidson (18-6) or No. 6 Foard (19-5) in the fourth round of the playoffs on Friday.
The Mountaineers' lineup made life difficult for Manuel during his six-inning outing. He finished his start, allowing eight hits, seven runs, four earned and three walks while striking out nine batters. Manuel also never had one inning where he didn't allow a hit or a walk.
Junior catcher Evan Conner and senior third baseman Jed West had the most success against Manuel. Conner recorded two home runs while West went 3-3 with a double.
Conner said he waiting for a fastball during the at-bat of his first home run.
"I think he threw me a curveball, and it was for a ball," Conner said. "I was sitting fastball after that. He left it up, and I just got ahold of it."
The second time, he expected a curveball and received one. Conner crushed it down the left-field line for another solo shot.
West said their mindset was key to finding success against Manuel. Tuscola was selective when choosing what pitches to swing at.
"We were trying to see pitches, get up in the box," West said. "Have good at-bats, work the pitch count, get in favorable counts. And then that showed because we were getting fastballs, and we were hammering them."
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Tuscola is trying to return to the regional finals for the first time since 2010.
Shepherd said the Mountaineers need to keep doing what they have been to keep advancing.
"Play with energy, play with passion," he said. "Right now, we're doing that. We just need to keep it up."
Zachary Huber is a high school sports reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times and Hendersonville Times-News. Email him at zhuber@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @zacharyahuber. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times and Times-News .
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: How Tuscola upset defending NCHSAA 3A baseball state champions to advance to 4th round
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