By Craig Juer -- Daily Staff Writer

WINCHESTER — The Pioneers weren't even through Scene II, and it looked like the script might already need a rewrite.

Billy Hayes was supposed to throw a complete game. There was no Plan B.

"That was predetermined," Millbrook coach Bo Bundrick said. "He wasn't coming out."

But Hayes had allowed two seeing-eye singles and hit a batter, loading the bases against the bottom third of Sherando's order with two outs in the second inning.

Bundrick trotted to the mound — not to remove Hayes, but to walk him through the next at-bat.

"We just talked about focal points," Hayes said. "Where I needed to hit my spot."

Hayes hit his spot, inducing a grounder to first by the leadoff hitter, Doug Davis, then beat the speedy Davis to the bag for the third out. The Warriors didn't cross the plate then, or in any other inning, of Hayes' complete game, 6-0 shutout of Sherando.

"He was pretty amazing," Millbrook catcher Daniel Nallen said.

As the Warriors (10-9, 6-7 Northwestern) have been wont to do this season, they came out with lackluster defense to start the game. Shortstop Ethan Smith booted a ground ball off the bat of the second hitter, Trevor Oyler, to put him on first. Pitcher Nick Merchant threw over to try to pick him off, and missed the bag, allowing Oyler to get to third, where he was sacrificed in by Zach Butler for a 1-0 first-inning Millbrook lead.

"That's been a problem all year," Merchant said. "We don't get started until late in the game, 'til about the fourth inning in, and it comes back to bite us."

The Pioneers (12-7, 9-4 Northwestern) expanded on the lead in the second inning, when Nallen hit a one-out breaking ball over the left-field wall for a two-run homer, his area-leading fifth of the season.

"He hung his curveball," said Nallen, who was 2-for-3 with three RBIs. "Middle of the plate."

According to Sherando coach Pepper Martin, Merchant's curveball was hanging all game, but the pitcher didn't express to the coaches, who call pitches, that he didn't have it that night.

"We called it, he threw it, they banged it," Martin said. "I want them to communicate more when they have a pitch that isn't working."

Despite facing the bottom half of the Pioneers' order, Merchant surrendered three runs in the fourth inning. Jason Groose led off with a single from the sixth spot, then scored on a double by Nallen. The ninth hitter, Chris Curry, drove in Nallen's courtesy runner, Cody Fauver, with a triple before scoring on Seth Clemens' single.

"It's not a matter of missing pitches, it's a matter of them doing a good job," said Merchant, who faced little resistance the rest of the way through his complete game. "They produce very good hitters out of that team. All around the lineup it's solid."

Millbrook's rivalry status made the loss sting for Merchant.

"Disappointing, first of all, because it's the district, and disappointing, second of all, because it's Millbrook, across town," he said. "This is the game you want in every sense."

Looking at the bigger picture, Martin was discouraged by his team's play so late in the season.

"This was one of the few games this year where we totally got outplayed. There's no doubt," he said. "You'd like to finish the season strong, particularly in our case, because we've been so inconsistent. We've played some games where we could beat anybody, and we've played others where we find it hard to compete with anybody."

Though Bundrick wasn't happy with the way his team laid down their bats after racking up a 6-0 lead (1-for-8 after the fourth inning), the sight of Hayes walking off the mound after striking out Jason Tunison and Davis to end the game was exactly how he'd pictured the final scene playing out. Hayes finished with six strikeouts and six hits over seven innings.

"Hayes is our only go-to guy," Bundrick said. "He knew that he had to throw a CG, and he did."

*Contact Craig Juer at cjuer@nvdaily.com

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