Northeast Nodaway walked it off against Nodaway Valley in eight innings as Grant McIntyre got three hits, including the game winner. Auston Pride pitched 7 1/3 innings, using up all 105 of his pitches, and Ben Boswell, who hadn’t pitched much before this year, came on in relief to get the final two outs and the win.
It looked like things would be easy for the Bluejays as Lane Dack got a double to the left center field wall with one out. Colton Swalley singled for the first run and took second on an errant pickoff throw. Auston Pride struck out, but the strike was dropped and Swalley took third on the throw to first to retire Pride. Dylan McIntyre walked and stole.
Grant McIntyre then got the first of his three hits, a double lost in the sun by the left fielder, to make it 3-0 and Brayden Munns singled down the left field line to score McIntyre to make it 4-0.
Things looked like they would pick up from there as Zach Pride singled and he took second as the return throw got away, and Ben Boswell advanced him to third with one out. But when the next two batters struck out, that gave Nodaway Valley hope and they started to fight back.
Ethan Rohr walked to start the Thunder third and Blake Bohannon forced him at second. Hunter Dawson grounded to Boston Adwell at third for an apparent force at second, but Bohannon beat the throw. Lane Larabee struck out, and then Kayden Conn grounded to Adwell for an apparent third out. But Conn beat the throw, which was wild, and that put runners on second and third and scored Nodaway Valley’s first run. That was all that Nodaway Valley needed as their sluggers, Preston Jenkins and Mason Chitwood, hit back to back doubles that even the vast Northeast Nodaway field barely kept in the yard, tying the game at 4-4.
From there, Nodaway Valley looked like a completely different team as their hurlers, Lane Larabee and Hunter Dawson, mowed down Bluejay batters right and left. But Northeast settled down and managed to keep Nodaway Valley off the board. First, pitcher Auston Pride overcame two walks to get out of the fourth. Then, Nodaway Valley put runners on first and third with one out in the fifth when Jenkins crushed another double to left and Mason Chitwood reached on an error. But then Auston Pride picked off Chitwood, his second pickoff of the came, and Jenkins was unable to advance despite the rundown. Pride hit Kolten Lekey, but got Garrett Carpenter to ground out to end the threat.
Hunter Dawson doubled with two out in the sixth, but Larabee grounded out to end the threat. Jenkins came up again in the seventh and hit a shot off Zach Pride’s glove for yet another double, but Boston Adwell made a great play at third to rob Chitwood of a hit and get the second out. Lekey popped out to end the threat.
With one out in the seventh, Auston Pride used up his 105 pitches and Coach Vance Proffitt was faced with a dilemma – pitch Dylan McIntyre and risk using him up for the upcoming Platte Valley game, or use someone unproven. He chose to go to Ben Boswell, who had been clamoring to pitch for the Bluejays all year and who finally got his chance. Before Boswell took the mound, Auston Pride gave him some pointers. “I told him to go after them,” said Pride. Boswell backed up his words as he mixed a fastball and a devastating breaking ball to get the Bluejays through the eighth.
Dawson pitched the last 4+ innings for the Thunder, getting Bluejay batters to chase the high pitches, mixing in a breaking ball, and using a devastating fastball as his out pitch. But in the Bluejay eighth, he tried a first pitch fastball on Auston Pride, who was hitless and had two called third strikes up to that point. But Pride this time crushed one for a double down the left field line. Dylan McIntyre flied out and Grant McIntyre got down to two strikes. Grant had been called out on strikes earlier in the game in a similar situation. But this time, instead of leaving it up to the umpire, he turned on a pitch and crushed an opposite field double for the game winning hit.
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