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LANCASTER — No lead is ever safe … especially with a trip to the state tournament on the line.
Unfortunately, that’s a lesson Wheelersburg found out in heartbreaking fashion on Friday afternoon.
Despite owning an early seven-run lead, the Pirates (22-8) couldn’t muster runs down the stretch while Cadiz Harrison Central stormed back late and took home an 8-7 victory to end the Pirates’ season in a Division III regional final at Lancaster’s Beavers Field.
“Kudos to [Harrison Central]. Being down 7-0 and being able to do what they did … I could mention being proud of our guys and getting on them early, though,” Wheelersburg coach Derek Moore said. “We put up six runs early and get another in the second inning. We told our guys to play confident with the lead. But [Harrison Central] showed who they were. They’ve done that a lot in this tournament.”
After escaping a bases-loaded jam to open the game, Wheelersburg jumped all over the Huskies.
With two runners on, Creed Warren laced an RBI single to center field that put the Pirates ahead 1-0. Lane Hutchinson then scored on a wild pitch for a 2-0 game, but the Pirates were far from finished.
They jammed the base paths, and forced back-to-back walks for a 4-0 score before Connor Estep notched an RBI single back up the middle. Another bases loaded walk then extended the lead to 6-0 before the Huskies could take a breath.
Wheelersburg added another run in the second, via an RBI from Kolton Salyers, pushing the lead to 7-0.
However, just when it appeared the Pirates were in firm control, Harrison Central slowly began to chip away at the deficit.
The Huskies cracked the scoreboard in the top of the third with an RBI groundout from Tucker Snyder, followed by an RBI single from Jake Madzia to cut the lead to 7-2.
All of a sudden, confidence and momentum started changing dugouts and the script was completely flipped.
In the top of the fifth, Harrison Central scored two more runs via back-to-back RBI singles from Anthony Pelegreen and Cabot Arbaugh, trimming the lead to 7-4.
“I loved our maturity. All year long. But today, it seemed like maybe that maturity, I don’t want to say faded away, but maybe with one senior, our lack of senior leadership maybe showed a little today,” Moore said.
Then the sixth inning came, where the Pirates saw their seven-run lead evaporate.
Nemeth started with an RBI single for a 7-5 game before later, with the bases loaded, Harrison Central scored on a wild pitch. When Braden Cook ripped a two-run single into left field, it gave the Huskies their first lead at 8-7.
Wheelersburg failed to recover.
The Pirates started the seventh with back-to-back singles but a sacrifice bunt, a fly out and a strikeout spelled the end of a magnificent season.
CREDIT: Brock Netter/SOSA
“All year long, we’ve played good baseball, then not so good baseball,” Moore said. “When we hit the tournament, I thought we were finally starting to go. We were finally getting more consistent pitching and our bats were coming alive. But today, there were too many mental mistakes. They capitalized on those. When you do that in this type of atmosphere, in a game of this magnitude, you’re not going to win.”
Statistically, Salyers led Wheelersburg’s offense, going 2-for-2 with a run and an RBI while Estep was 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI. Caden Conn also helped out, going 1-for-2 with a walk and an RBI, and was 1-for-3 with a run and an RBI.
The Pirates lose one senior in Hutchinson. Needless to say, they expect to be back in a regional final next spring and get over the hump.
“We’re going to miss Lane. This is his first year of varsity baseball after he battled the injury bug and he worked super, super hard to get into his role,” Moore said. “He was first-team all-conference and first-team all-district. We’re going to miss him tremendously. We have 16 guys in that dugout that are coming back. When you’re super close to winning a region with that many players coming back … we’ll be super hungry. Hopefully this can give us some fuel to the fire and motivation to win this game next year.”
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