By By Matthew Nascone
For the second consecutive district game Jeff Price has pitched a shutout for the Northview Chiefs baseball team.
Price (3-1) limited the district rival Walton Braves to three hits in the 1-0 win for the Chiefs Thursday night. Price and Walton pitcher Sean Carter combined for 13 strikeouts in a game that lasted a mere one hour and 40 minutes.
"It was business as usual for Jeff out there," NHS head coach Sid Wheatley said. "He is awful tough to hit when he has all his pitches working and that is what he had tonight. He is such a competitor and he gave us another outstanding performance on the mound."
Price allowed no runs on three hits, struck out six batters and walked one.
The Chiefs (4-4, 2-0 FHSAA Class 3A, District 1) scored the lone run of the game in the first inning when senior Jacob Farish drove in Price with a single.
Farish was 1-for-3 on the evening with one RBI and Price was 3-for-3 at the plate with one run scored and one stolen base. Sophomore Brad Lowery had the Chiefs' only other hit and went 1-for-2 with one walk.
The win kept the Chiefs perfect in district play and Wheatley said that was huge.
"The most important thing for us to do is to play well in our district games," Wheatley said. "We are definitely where we want to be at 2-0. We want to win them all because the higher the seed for the district tournament, the better because that tournament determines if you go to the playoffs."
But to continue the winning streak, Wheatley said the team needs to work on the offensive part of their game.
"We are playing great defense and getting great pitching, but we need to cut down on the strikeouts and eliminate the baserunning mistakes," he said. "We need to have more timely hitting when we have runners in scoring position."
The Chiefs had a couple of opportunities to pad the lead against Walton, but they did not take advantage.
"We had our opportunities, but we couldn't cash them in and we need to do that if we want to continue to win games," Wheatley said.
The Chiefs travel to Navarre, Fla. for a game against Navarre High School tomorrow. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.