North Harrison withstood a grand slam by Justin Roberts and overcame a five run deficit in the last two innings against archrival East Harrison to advance in districts. For the Shamrocks, the win represents their 10th win and secured them at least a .500 season. They snapped a two game losing streak as they dropped a 9-5 game to Northeast Nodaway and a 21-12 shootout with Braymer to end the regular season. The 10 wins is a school record for the third-year franchise. This was their second straight year of winning districts.
East Harrison came into the game having only won three games, but they had been playing excellent baseball, losing three out of their last four, but going the distance in all of them, including a 10-6 loss to Pattonsburg. North Harrison had won handily in the two regular season meetings with East Harrison, but the Bobcats broke out on top with a home run from Ethan Claycomb off Collin Castleberry in the top of the first as he hit one to right center that cleared the wall despite the wind blowing in from left.
From there, Claycomb held North Harrison’s powerful hitting attack in a vice-grip, getting strikeout after strikeout. Brett Emig shot down Austin Vaughn trying to steal third in the third inning to keep the score at 1-0. North Harrison finally tied the score at 1 when Sam Mejia walked after fighting back from a 1-2 count and stole second. He kept right on running as the catcher’s throw got into center and made it to third. Logan Huitt lunged at a bad pitch and struck out, but Grant Claycomb’s grounder got under second baseman Lauryn Waddle’s legs to score Mejia to tie it at 1-1.
With one out in the fourth, Claycomb singled to left center and Roberts walked and Castleberry ran out of pitches. Tim Heintz came in to pitch and the runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. Ethan Billups flied out to Logan Huitt in center to score Claycomb. North Harrison tied it right back up again as Collin Castleberry walked after getting a 2-2 count and stole second. Tim Heintz singled to center and Castleberry hesitated coming around third, but scored anyway when the throw was high, tying it at 2-2.
But then all hell threatened to break loose in the fifth as the bottom of the order erupted for East Harrison. Kris Parsons doubled into the right field corner and then Austin Vaughn singled to left. Lane Huitt let the ball get by as Parsons scored and Vaughn made it to second. Vaughn made it to third and Natayla Selby walked on four pitches that were not even close, finishing Heintz.
Grant Claycomb came on in relief and nearly got out of the jam. He got to 3-2 on Lauryn Waddle, but struck her out and then got Cole McLain on three pitches to bring up Ethan Claycomb, a second cousin to Grant. North Harrison elected to walk Ethan Claycomb and pitch to Justin Roberts, but he hit a drive that barely cleared the 250 foot area that cuts in sharply in right at Pattonsburg, giving the Bobcats a grand slam and a 7-2 lead.
It didn’t look good for North Harrison after the fifth. Logan Huitt led off the inning with a perfect bunt single down the third base line, taking advantage of the fact that the third baseman was playing deep and way off the line. But he got picked off and Grant Claycomb popped out to first; Ethan Claycomb was at 74 pitches to start the inning and only needed two to get two outs. He then struck out Brett Emig on three pitches and things looked grim for the Shamrocks.
But Grant Claycomb retired the Bobcats in order in the sixth, keeping it from getting worse and giving them a chance. Logan Craig flied out to start the North Harrison sixth, but then all of a sudden, Ethan Claycomb started tiring as Collin Castleberry walked on a 3-2 pitch, stole second, and went to third on a wild pitch. Tim Heintz overcame a 1-2 count to draw another walk and stole second. That put Ethan Claycomb at 95 pitches, with the 105 pitch limit looming. Lane Huitt then singled to bring in two runs, chasing Ethan Claycomb and bringing in Cole McClain.
It didn’t seem to matter at first, as Tyler Lundy was called out on strikes and Sam Mejia hit a grounder to first to apparently end the inning. But the ball rolled through the first baseman’s legs for an error and another run scored. Mejia stole second and went to third on a wild pitch after nearly being picked off and then Logan Huitt hit a grounder to Lauryn Waddle at second for what should have been the final out. But the ball took a bad hop and went into right for a base hit and Mejia scored to make it 7-6.
North Harrison had to get a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the seventh to avoid facing Ethan Claycomb again. Natayla Selby was called out on strikes and second baseman Sam Mejia made a leaping catch of Lauryn Waddle’s pop fly. But then McClain reached on shortstop Tim Heintz’s bobble and Ethan Claycomb was up to bat. But this time, North Harrison elected to pitch to him and Grant froze him with a change for strike three to keep the game at 7-6.
Logan Craig led off the bottom of the seventh with a slow roller that the third baseman had no play on. He went against the book; normally, runners are told not to steal bases when a team is down in the last inning. But Craig stole second and third and then Collin Castleberry drew a walk and stole second, putting runners on second and third with nobody out.
Timothy Heintz was up next, and he hit a towering pop fly in front of the first base dugout and everybody was chasing it. But the catcher, with Craig on third, left home plate unguarded to go after the ball, and nobody took charge to cover it. The first baseman made the catch, but that meant that Logan Craig was able to tag up and score to tie it at 7-7 since home plate was unguarded. Had East Harrison let it drop, Craig would not have been able to advance, since a foul ball is a dead ball. Something similar happened in the Sectional game in girls softball last fall between Platte Valley and North Harrison; there, the right fielder caught a long drive in foul territory in front of the batting cage; since the ball was caught, Payton Craig was able to tag up and score a critical run in North Harrison’s 3-2 victory over Platte Valley.
With one out, Collin Castleberry, who had held up on the preceding play since third base was covered and was still at second, came halfway off the bag as McClain was set. McClain turned his shoulders after coming to the set position and a balk was called, moving Castleberry to third. Lane Huitt was barely hit by a pitch and stole second and then Hunter Parkhurst, who had a clutch infield hit against NEN, came up to bat. He got down to his final strike and hit a grounder to first. The first baseman tried to come up firing before he had the ball and bobbled it as Castleberry came home with the winning run.
No comments:
Post a Comment