Gallery by Ashley Honaker
Lindside – In postseason play every miscue is magnified.
Summers County found that out the hard way.
Down two starters, the Bobcats committed six errors, allowed seven stolen bases and allowed numerous passed balls, falling 7-3 against James Monroe Friday in Lindside.
With the win James Monroe advances to the sectional championship game while Summers County will await the winner of Mount View-River View, hoping to get a pair of rematches against the Mavericks.
Trailing 4-3 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, Summers was on track to face a one-run deficit in the seventh. And then an avalanche of mistakes largely put the game out of reach.
A passed ball on a strikeout, which would’ve been the final out of the inning, allowed James Monroe’s Kadyn Hines to reach, leading to a three-run outburst.
“One of the things that I try to preach to the kids is just be aggressive on the bases,” James Monroe head coach Tom Gardinier said. “Push the envelope because when we’re stealing I mean they’ve got to throw it, they’ve got to catch it and they’ve got to tag us. I mean there’s a lot of moving parts and at the high school level, the other defense gets a little frustrated and a little flustered when you do put a little bit of pressure on. There’s a couple times we were going first and third and I tried to send the kids right away as opposed to right when he’s going home. Let’s put some pressure and force the envelope a little bit. And I mean, there’s a difference in a one or two-run game going into the seventh versus a four-run game.”
The ensuing throw down after the strikeout was offline, allowing Peyton Gardinier to score. A passed ball eventually allowed Hines to score after he made his way around the bases and Kaden Lowe, who reached on an error following Hines, scored when the Bobcats again failed to secure a third strike against Justin Feamster.
“We’ve not made seven errors in any two games combined this year,” Summers County head coach Stan Unroe said. “But we’ve got a couple kids out. We had some kids playing positions they’re not used to. We talked all week like we probably can’t pitch Ben (Lane) because at catcher we don’t really have anybody else to catch. So we stuck a kid back there and it was his second time trying to catch this season. He struggled with some passed balls and some throw downs. And our other substitute at first missed the ball there in seventh on a throw over and you know that led to a big inning. We ended up giving up (three) runs that inning and that’s the difference in the game.”
The woes extended to the offensive side of the ball in the top of the seventh where the Bobcats did little to climb out of the hole they found themselves in.
Robey Brown reached on an error at third and Ben Lane singled to lay the foundation for a comeback in the seventh. But Brown misread the liner to right off Lane’s bat, failing to beat the relay to second. Brandan Isaac eventually replaced Lane at first on a fielder’s choice and advanced to third where he was stranded to end the game.
Earlier in the game he was on the other end, stranding the Mavericks in key spots.
James Monroe struck first in the contest with Hudson Boggess scoring on an error in the first. The Mavericks kept the pressure on in the following inning, loading the bases with no outs against Summers pitcher Colten Jones.
But the Bobcats squashed the threat, inducing a line-out double play and later a strikeout.
The momentum carried to the offensive side where the visitors got a one-out single from Lane who scored when Isaac laced a triple to right to knot the game. Jake Boone followed with a single to score Isaac, giving the Bobcats a 2-1 lead.
“We were teetering early and really we lived dangerously all night with guys at second and third,” Unroe said. “But yeah, that was a big play double play line drive to Jake and we were able to double the runner off second and then get out of the inning. Colten Jones really good pitcher. He’s young. We had him on a pitch count of 75 tonight because we didn’t know if we’re going to need him Monday or not because we don’t know what kids we’re actually getting back. So we thought, ‘Well we’re gonna cut him off at 75 and that way we can use him again Monday if we have to.’ So you know that’s a tough situation, but he pitched well got us out of that and again, the double play was probably the biggest of the game until the sixth.”
The Mavericks, who produced a base runner in every inning didn’t relent, taking the lead for good in the fourth.
Noah Jewell drew an ominous walk to leadoff the bottom of the fourth, eventually scoring on a Boggess single. The woes behind the plate started shortly afterwards with Cameron Crislip and Boggess each scoring on wild pitches to put those hosts ahead 4-3.
“Momentum is key and I preach to the kids that we’ve got to win every inning,” Gardinier said. “If you win every inning then the game will take care of itself for you. You can’t lose the game there. And coming back after giving up two runs I mean, we kind of had to push it a little bit to score a couple runs here, chip away at it the best that we can. One guy can’t hit a five-run homer so we’ve got to get out of that mentality. And in all honesty, we had the wind blowing in today. Nobody was gonna hit a home run. We were gonna have to put the ball in play and make some things happen.”
While the top of Summers’ lineup held its own, the bottom struggled with Lowe.
The Bobcats No. 6 through 9 hitters finished 0-for-12 at the plate.
“We’ve preached about it being seven innings and you got 21 outs,” Gardinier said. “Just get 21 outs as fast as you can. Kaden is a big-time senior pitcher. He’s been around, he’s pitched in a lot of big games for us. He knows that for most teams, one through four, one through five or maybe one through six is where they’re gonna get all their action. So if you can shut down, whatever part it is for the team, you can not let those opportunities happen. Take care of the business there. Ben Lane, he’s a good player at the top of their order. I mean, he’s gonna generate some runs. I told our kids I said, ‘We’re up four, if he gets on base in the last inning, don’t worry about him and don’t turn 90 feet into 180 feet and give up the run that you don’t need to.’ But yeah, Kaden is a big-time senior pitcher and big-time leader for us. He’s pitched in a lot of big games for us. So we follow his lead and he knows what to do. I don’t have to go talk to him very often.”
