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Some Leather Work
Kaleb Goins' stab of this line drive ended the fourth inning and helped preserve (for the moment) Lehman's 3-0 lead.
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05/23/09 - Sonny Fulks/1570wptw.com
In the seventh inning of Friday's Division IV District Final at Northmont, Lehman baseball coach Dave King looked like ex-Orioles’ manager Earl Weaver...pacing back and forth and waiting for the other shoe to fall.
The reason, you ask?
Having lost two leads to the Southeastern Trojans, King could only think of the bottom of the sixth inning, when with then a 4-3 lead, the Cavs left the bases loaded with David Spearman and Kaleb Goins at the plate. Both popped out to end the inning.
As if that wasn’t enough to make you pace and fret, Southeastern scored a tying run in the top of the seventh when Spearman, on in relief of starter Kam Barton, walked leadoff hitter Travis Cain after having Cain down in the count, 0-2. He subsequently scored on an rbi-single by pinch-hitter Connor Mickens.
But the Cavs atoned for giving their coach the sweats. The fortunes of the game smiled upon King in the bottom of the inning when first baseman Nick Pulfer led off with a single, was sacrificed to second by second baseman Kaleb Goins, and Southeastern coach Rick Roberts intentionally walked catcher Wil Fridley to pitch to Corbin Peltier. Roberts, thinking forceout at any base, unknowingly overlooked the fact that Peltier was Lehman’s leading hitter entering the game with a .467 average…and had scalded a ball to left field that was caught in his previous at bat.
Peltier hit the first pitch thrown to him by righthander Tim Penrose off the end of the bat into right field, and Southeastern’s Caleb Diamond overthrew third base in an attempt to force Pulfer, who had held up to see if the ball would be caught. The ball went into the dugout, and Pulfer was awarded home with the winning run.
“Wow,” said King. “What a baseball game! And you’re right…I do feel like Earl Weaver, but that’s OK. I remember those days and you do, too. Earl won a few like that and today we won one, too.
“I have to admit, we put ourselves in a hole when we didn’t score another run in the third inning. And we missed a big opportunity in the sixth when we left the bases loaded. Usually David (Spearman) or Kaleb (Goins) are going to make hard contact and get a run across. But today they both popped up…maybe too anxious, I don’t know. I can’t be too upset, though. These kids have come through for us all year.”
They (Lehman) scored three in the bottom of the third. Freshman D.J. Hemm opened with a single and advanced to second when designated hitter Josh Waugh walked. But Hemm, in a base-running blunder, was caught off second and tagged out…just before doubles by Spearman, Goins and catcher Wil Fridley. Nonetheless, the Cavs led 3-0 going into the fifth.
Southeastern, which had been stymied by starter Kam Barton, finally figured things out in the fifth and chased the senior righthander with three runs and five hits in the inning…three in succession off the bats of Tyler Cooper, Travis Cain and Bo Timmons.
“I think that was all Kam had to give us,” said King. “I might have been asking too much, given the performance he gave us last weekend to get us here. But hey, we’re lucky to have an arm like Spearman’s to turn to in that situation.”
And indeed David Spearman did bring matters through to the top of the seventh, when he walked the leadoff hitter and watched him score to tie the game and send Dave King pacing in the Lehman dugout. He finished the game, gained the win, and allowed but that single run on four hits…striking out four and walking two.
But if Spearman was guilty for letting the Trojans off the hook, consider how coach Rick Roberts felt for squandering another potential run in the seventh when a suicide squeeze attempt was snuffed by a missed bunt. With Connor Mickens on third base, centerfielder Nick Phillips whiffed on the attempt and Mickens was tagged out trying to get back to the bag.
“If we get the bunt down their run in the seventh is just the tying run,” lamented Roberts afterward. “Nick is probably our best bunter, but he just missed the ball. Any kind of contact would have been better than missing altogether.”
For Roberts, it was a bittersweet scenario to watch the game end on an error by his rightfielder, and to lose by the unearned run in the bottom of the seventh. He’d seen it before.
“We won to get here in the exact same way…the exact same play,” he smiled. “Baseball is a funny game. Sometimes it gives you one, and sometimes it takes one away.
And the $64 question: Why did he walk Wil Fridley to pitch to Corbin Peltier in the bottom of the seventh?
“To tell you the truth, I guess I didn’t know that he was their best hitter. We were thinking force at any base and how to give ourselves the best chance of making a play to get out of the inning.”
It set up Peltier just fine, and he vowed to make the most of it.
“Was I surprised that they put him (Fridley) on?” he asked afterwards. “Sure, but I also got focused in a hurry to get up there and get a hit. All I wanted to do was make contact.”
Lehman advances to the regional round next Thursday at Wayne High School to face the winner of Friday’s Convoy Crestview/Delphos Jefferson game.
“This was a heckuva’ baseball game,” Dave King repeated. “But hey…our seniors have been through a lot of days like today and I’m sure their experience made a difference.”
A day when both coaches could say…baseball giveth, and baseball taketh away!
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