Hawks rally to knock off Crusaders in District semi
A few old baseball adages proved to be true Thursday May 20, in the District semifinal between Hiland and Steubenville Catholic Central at Tuscarawas Central Catholic High school in New Philadelphia.First, there is no defense for walks. The second adage, lead off walks will kill you, proved true twice, giving the Crusaders a 3-2 lead, and then igniting the rally that led to the Hawks 4-3 victory.
Hiland scored twice in the second inning without getting a ball out of the infield.
With two outs, Jalen Miller beat out a ground ball to the hole at short in a bang-bang play at first.
SCC pitcher Mike McDonald then was unable to throw a strike, walking four straight batters to plate a pair and give the Hawks a 2-0 advantage.
"There was two outs and we had that bang-bang play at first," Central coach Frank Spence said. "He (McDonald) just hit a bad streak right there. We couldn't take him out. They scored two runs without hitting a ball out of the infield. That's baseball. We've lost three or four games like this to good teams. I feel we're a good team. We've got to find a way to win these kinds of games."
Bradley Schlabach pitched like the projected ace he was supposed to be for the Hawks, holding the Crusaders scoreless through the first five innings before he ran into trouble in the sixth, thanks to a lead-off walk.
"Brad pitched good. He gave up that one walk that really hurt," Hiland coach Tom Gibson said.
A walk to clean-up hitter Joe Bahen was followed by a single by Jordan Teramana. The runners moved up on a wild pitch, and scored on a double by Ryan Dittmar, who moved to third on a ground out and scored the go-ahead run on a ground out to short.
Grant Troyer got as far as second base in the Hiland half of the sixth inning, reaching on a bunt. McDonald struck out Jalen Miller and Nicky Yoder to end the threat.
"He did a good job of keeping our hitters off balance and working ahead of the hitters," Johnny Raber said of McDonald.The lanky right-hander fanned four but walked seven, holding Hiland to four hits, three of them coming in their final at-bat.
Danny Beachy relieved Schlabach in the seventh and worked around a lead-off single. Schlabach scattered eight hits over his six innings of work. He walked two and struck out four.
"Brad pitched an excellent game. I wish he could've came out and won it," Hiland catcher Hayden Mobley said.
B.J. Miller pinch hit for Sheldon Mullet and walked to lead off the Hiland seventh.
Kenny Miller sacrificed him to second. Beachy grounded out to third, Miller staying at second.
The Hawks were down to their final strike, as Raber was down in the count 1-2, when he drove a line shot to right center to score Miller and tie the game at three apiece.
"Whatever I did, I just didn't want to get out," Raber said. "I didn't want it to end here. I want to keep going."
Luke Burch then singled, putting runners on first and second with two outs, bringing clean-up hitter Mobley to the plate.
Mobley was down 1-2 in the count when he rifled a shot over the head of center fielder Mickey Bednar to score Kendall Wagler (who pinch ran for Raber) with the winning run.
"I wasn't thinking anything. I just wanted to put the ball in play," Mobley said. "We haven't been playing well lately. This feels good."
"We needed a comeback to get this team going again," Gibson said. "Hopefully this will light us up a little bit. We've been flat for two weeks and we played the first six innings really flat.
"We didn't hit the ball hard the first six innings, and then Johnny (Raber) gets a big hit; Luke (Burch) and then Hayden (Mobley). He was due, and he just ripped that ball. I was really happy for him," the coach continued. "The resiliency shows when games like this happen. It gives the kids a lot more confidence in themselves and us as coaches. We used a lot of guys today. We changed the lineup; trying to do something to get the guys sparked up.
"We tell the kids, whoever is prepared when the bell rings is going to be the team that wins," Gibson added. "This was pretty exciting."
The Hawks advanced to the District championship game on Friday, May 21, against the TCC Saints at Cambridge. The Saints edged Toronto 4-3 to set up a rematch against the Hawks.
"They battled. That's the heart these guys have. Even when they're flat, they'll still come out and make you knock them out," Gibson said. "They're not going to give up. They'll make you deliver the knock out punch. I like the fact they battled, battled, battled, and things went our way."
For SCC, it was another tough loss. The Crusaders bow out with a 17-11 record.
"They deserve credit. They put the ball in play," Spence said. "You get to this level, everybody's good and you've got to play the full seven innings. This was a good baseball game. You had two teams that didn't quit. We made our move, they hung in there and they made theirs. We were playing well. They just played a little bit better."