There is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide on the baseball diamond. Teams cannot possess the ball or milk the clock to preserve a win.
The high school game demands that you get 21 outs over a seven-inning game to put a notch in the win column.
Saturday afternoon in the Class AA Region 3, Section 2 elimination game between Shady Spring and Nicholas County, the Tigers recorded 20 outs.
Out No. 21 could not be found.
Trailing 7-4 heading to the bottom of the seventh inning, the Grizzlies responded with a fierce rally to grab a wild, 8-7 win over Shady Spring.
Nicholas County will now host Independence Monday at 6 p.m. The Patriots need one win for the sectional title, while the Grizzlies need two wins to move to the regional championship.
“So many of our, 21 wins now, have been come from behind. Probably 14 or 15,” Nicholas County head coach D.J. Martin said. “Now you see why. These guys have just bought into that. If they don’t stop and they don’t hang their heads, they are good enough to find away to win.”
The dramatic comeback did not look promising for the home squad, trailing 7-4 with three outs possibly remaining in the season.
A single by Ira Mylott was sandwiched around two fly ball outs putting Nicholas County in even more dire straits.
Hope started to build when Coleton Hellems ripped his second double of the game placing runners at second and third.
Hope turned into belief when Cain Ferrell singled home both runners and Braden Brown walked to move Ferrell in scoring position.
In a moment that maybe only Hollywood could write, senior Grayson Kesterson stepped to the plate on his 18th birthday with the season, and his high school career, on the line.
“I am a senior and I have started for four years. Just being in that spot, it was experience really,” Kesterson said. “I haven’t been seeing the ball (well) for two weeks. I went up there, cleared my mind and did what I do best, slap it to right field.”
With the count sitting at one ball and two strikes, Kesterson fouled off a pitch just off the outside portion of the plate to stay alive.
The next swing was money.
Finding the gap between the first baseman and the second baseman, Kesterson drove home Ferrel with the tying run, much to the delight of the home crowd.
“He has been there for four years and he is such a great guy under pressure,” Martin said about his catcher. “Even though he didn’t have the best day at the plate, I wouldn’t have traded it for anyone. He poked one through and we had good wheels at second to get that run across.”
Kesterson agreed that his years of experience were crucial in that key at-bat.
“That is how I did everything last year. I just spread out a little bit and hit it to right field,” the senior catcher explained. “That was the only way I was going to score a runner right there. I just tried to do my best with that.”
Lucas Milam was walked to set up a force at every base in hopes of recording the third out, but all of the momentum was clearly sitting on the backs of the Grizzlies.
A hard ground ball from Caleb Burns just wide of third base could not be handled, allowing Brown to score the game winner.
“At that point we are just looking to keep the pressure on them. Try to force a mistake,” Martin said. “It was a hard hit ground ball and tough to handle. With Burns’ speed, it is such a hard throw across there. He did a great job. They all did.”
Even more heartbreaking for Shady Spring was the fact that an error on the exchange at second base in the sixth inning, which would have been the third out, led to a pair of runs for Nicholas with the Tigers leading 6-2.
“They scored seven runs in the last two innings. You have to make routine plays,” Shady Spring head coach Jordan Meadows said. “We had an error at second base and they scored two runs (in the sixth). We were in the game and we did what we wanted to do, just lost a tough one in the end.”
The visitors built a 6-1 lead through five innings, thanks in large part to mistakes made by the Grizzlies.
“The kids battled, but Nicholas County gave us seven runs,” Meadows said. “We only had two hits. We executed early with four runs and got (starting pitcher) Ira (Mylott) out of the game, which is what we wanted to do. It was just a bad beat.”
If you made a list of all of the cardinal sins of baseball, Nicholas County could have checked virtually every box Saturday.
“Errors made with two outs and guys in scoring position. Having batters with 1-2 or 0-2 counts and hitting them. We were leaving runners stranded,” Martin lamented. “A big problem all year for us is not getting guys on until there are one or two outs. Today we had guys on all day with no outs and just could not produce.”
Last year, Nicholas County was the undefeated team heading into the championship round, only to see Shady Spring win two games to steal away the sectional title.
The boys from Summersville are looking to repeat that scenario, only this time, in their favor.
“That was our motivation yesterday. You just have to battle back. The season is not over,” Kesterson said. “It is double-elimination for a reason. You just have to clear your mind and battle back. Baseball is 95 percent mental. You have to go the next day, relax, have fun and do what you do best.”
