It resembled more of a world heavyweight championship boxing match than a high school baseball game, but teams from Red Bank and Upperman are doing everything in their power to clear this last hurdle with a trip to the state tournament next week as the reward.
Facing each other at Red Bank Thursday evening in the first round of the Sectional Best-Of-Three series, the Bees from Baxter have the upper hand at this point following tense 4-3 victory in nine innings.
The second game is set for 5 p.m. on Friday. Should the Lions even things then, a third game would follow shortly afterward.
Thursday’s game was worth the price of admission as fans from both teams saw some quality high school baseball. Both teams had more than their share of missed opportunities early, but the Bees refused to be denied as they scored the go-ahead run at the end on a sacrifice fly by Braden Green that drove in Julian Llano, who had walked with one out and advanced to third on a stolen base and a wild pitch.
Sean Brune had a leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth, but Alec Wilson got two straight strikeouts before sophomore Chris Wirsing got a grounder to second to end the game.
The Bees improve to 25-11 while Red Bank is now 22-18. Upperman coach Wes Shanks saw several teams have to win in extra innings and hoped that his team wouldn’t be next, but he was just happy to see his team respond in a positive way after Red Bank had battled back to tie the game in the seventh to force extra innings.
“We somehow found a way to win this game,” Shanks began after a positive chat with his guys after this first one ended.
“I was hoping that we wouldn’t go extra innings, but that’s about what you expect in playoff baseball. Those guys are fighting for the same thing we’re fighting for.
“I personally hate runners left on base, but that’s what it’s all about. This was a true team win for us. We had a lot of options, but we had to go with the guys that got us here. We know it’s a long way from being over, but we like where we are right now.
“We’ll go back home, get a good night’s sleep in our beds and be back ready to play again tomorrow,” he added.
Red Bank coach Matt Roberson was just hoping that his team would have had better results, but it’s not over yet.
“That was a really good game and a fun one to watch, but we had too many unforced errors and just didn’t play our game,” he began.
“They shut down our running game when they threw us out twice in the first inning. We also took too many called third strikes. They have all the momentum right now, but we need to answer. If we can somehow come back and win tomorrow’s second game, anything can happen,” he nodded.
Trammell Davis Jr. singled and was thrown out trying to steal second in the first inning before Anyer Alvarez walked. He went to second on a wild pitch before scoring on a single by Jack Barkeloo.
The score stayed at 1-0 through the first four innings.
Upperman had loaded the bases with nobody out in the third inning, but didn’t score as pitcher Sean Brune got Wirsing on a pop to short for the first out, Wilson was called out on batter’s interference on an attempted squeeze bunt for the second out before Rookie Allison flied to left to end the threat.
The Bees refused to be denied the next time that golden opportunity presented itself.
Karson Holroyd walked to lead off the fifth and moved up when Evan Huddleston reached on a perfect bunt. Justin Fallon took a swinging third strike as the ball bounced away, but he was gunned down at first. Holroyd alertly broke home on the throw and tied the game when he slid safely home.
Wirsong then singled to center to give the Bees a 2-1 lead.
Upperman increased the lead to 3-1 in the sixth when Llano doubled to lead off before scoring on a single by Green.
Llano had been in a groove as the Upperman starter and had retired 13 straight Lions before Barkeloo led off the seventh with a single. Llano was replaced by Fallon, who walked Brune before getting Andry Briceno on a grounder to first. Brayden Stultz then walked to load the bases before Tayveonn Bonds took a called third strike after fouling off four pitches with two strikes.
Hayden Knam then provided a proud moment for the Red Bank faithful as he ripped the first pitch into left for a single to drive in the tying runs, but the inning ended when courtesy runner Peyton Harrell was tagged out rounding third.
Nobody scored in the eighth, but the Bees scored the game winner in the ninth.
Allison, Llano and Huddleston all had two hits for Upperman as they finished the game with nine. Barkeloo was the only Red Bank player with two.
The freshman Stultz, the fourth Red Bank pitcher, took the loss while Wilson was the winner and Wirsing the save for the Bees.
Upperman left 13 runners stranded while Red Bank had four.
UPPERMAN 000 021 001 – 4 9 0
RED BANK 100 000 200 – 3 6 1
Llano, Fallon (7), Llano (7), Wilson (8), Wirsing (9) and Allison; Brune, Knam (7), Alvarez (8), Stultz (9) and Briceno, Brune (7), Briceno (9).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)