Dream Season Continues for Hussman, 15-0

At some point this season, Darrell Hussman will have a letdown.

The Quartz Hill High senior pitcher has allowed a total of four hits and two runs in his first three starts, all complete games.

So When the Rebels scored 10 runs in the top of the first inning against Antelope Valley Tuesday, it seemed a perfect opportunity for Hussman to relax.

But Hussman’s dream season continued. He held the Antelopes without a hit until the fifth inning as Quartz Hill, the top-ranked team in The Times’ area poll, cruised to a 15-0 victory at Antelope Valley High.

“Each inning I would go in there and try to convince myself it was zero-to-zero,” Hussman said. “It really would have been nice to hold on to the no-hitter.”

Hussman (4-0) finished with a three-hitter, not allowing a ball to be handled by the outfield until a seventh-inning double by Shawn Douglas. He had eight strikeouts and walked three batters.

Facing Hussman proved to be a humbling experience for Antelope Valley (2-8), which lost virtually its entire team to graduation following a Golden League championship in 1994.

Quartz Hill (9-0), coming off a fourth-place league finish, wanted to establish itself as the league favorite early.

“We were coming in expecting to win big but we didn’t expect 10 runs in the first inning,” Quartz Hill third baseman Kyle Goss said. “We wanted to make a statement.”

Goss did most of the damage in the first inning explosion with a triple and a double, driving in three runs and scoring twice.

Antelope Valley starter Jeremy Holiday (2-4) almost got out of the first inning with moderate damage, spotting Quartz Hill a 3-0 lead after four batters.

But after getting two outs, Matt Wilson kept the inning alive by reaching first on an error by third baseman Charlie Cooke. The next seven batters reached base on two walks and five hits.

Holiday recovered to shut down Quartz Hill the next two innings but Brown, who struck out in his first two at-bats, hit his first home run of the year in the fourth.

The Rebels scored later in the fourth on a single by Brett May, then scored three runs in the fifth, highlighted by Brown’s two-run double.