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Going Out With A Bang
For a moment a hoped-for home run off the bat of Jay Schulze in the eighth inning. Short of the fence, it fell for a double...his second of the day.
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05/24/09 - Sonny Fulks/1570wptw.com
No one hates to lose a baseball game more than Bill Sturwold.
And after Saturday afternoon’s frustrating 3-2 loss to Cincinnati Christian you might have expected Sturwold’s comments to require censure.
Tied 2-2 with the Cougars after seven innings, Loramie left five men on base in their final two at bats…two in the top of the eighth, and three in the bottom of the ninth.
In the eighth, catcher Jake Boerger lifted a fly ball to short center with two outs after pitcher Jay Schulze had opened the inning with a scorching double to left center field. Mitch Raterman had drawn an intentional walk to put runners a first and second, but Boerger’s fly ball became an omen for things to come.
In the ninth, third baseman Andy Schieltz opened the frame with a ringing single to center field. After a sacrifice bunt by Mitch Ahlers, he stood at second base with two out. Cincinnati Christian starting pitcher Brian Kirschbaum promptly hit the next two batters, Alex Wolf and Jake Bowles, to load the bases, and for a moment it seemed that that same old Redskin magic was about to become manifest one more time. But Mitch Boerger, working on an “ofer” in four previous at bats, grounded weakly to Kirschbaum who retired him for the third out.
Consequently, the Cougars came right back to load the bases in the bottom of the inning, on a single by the nine hitter, Matt Fleenor (his third of the day), a sacrifice bunt, and back-to-back intentional walks to catcher Josh Lanphier and Kirschbaum, batting in the cleanup spot.
That set up Micah Parker, who had frustrated Loramie repeatedly throughout the afternoon with his ability to chase down fly balls in center field. This time he brought their frustration to a head…with a ground single to left that scored Fleenor with the winning run.
It took exactly 2:12 minutes, two gutsy pitching performances, more hard hit balls by Loramie than Sturwold could count afterwards, and the lack of a timely base hit to bring the Redskins’ season to a close…a frustrating close…with a 21-9 record.
Brian Kirschbaum entered the game with a 5-1 record and a sterling 1.12 earned run average. Known for his ability to throw strikes, he pounded the zone all afternoon and simply took his chances with a Loramie lineup whose composite batting average was 50 points higher for the season than that of the Cougars. He struck out but four, but more importantly, he only walked one in nine innings and surrendered but six hits on the afternoon.
“It wasn’t my best performance of the year,” admitted Kirschbaum afterward. “I had a better game in a tournament early in the year down in Tennessee when I struck out 13. These guys really swung the bats. The made pretty good contact and hit some balls very hard right at us.”
He took the words right out of Bill Sturwold’s mouth. Surprisingly positive after seeing his team end its season, he paid credit to a number of factors in the game’s outcome.
“Their guy pitched a nice game, no doubt about it,” he said to reporters in the Redskins’ dugout. “But hey…we had good at bats. We hit the ball harder than they did. We just hit them at people.
“Jay absolutely torched that ball to left center in the eighth. And really, when Jake Bowles’ ball left the bat to lead off the eighth I thought it was out of here. This park is deceptively big, and their guy ran it down at the fence. If he hits that in our park it’s a home run…but that’s baseball.”
Loramie opened the scoring with a run in the top of the fourth…the first of Schulze’s two doubles on the day became a run after an rbi-single by starting pitcher Justin Hoying.
But Cincinnati Christian came right back in the bottom of the inning. A pair of doubles off Hoying by designated hitter Avery Snead and Kirschbaum, sandwiched by an error on shortstop Andy Schieltz and a single by third baseman Chris Gortner gave the Cougars a 2-1 lead that they would hold until the top of the seventh. It also chased Hoying from the mound in favor of Jay Schulze.
In the seventh, the Redskins opened with a single by Mitch Raterman. Jake Boerger drew a walk and Schieltz placed a perfect sacrifice bunt to put runners at second and third. Justin Hoying followed with a screaming base hit off the glove of Chris Gortner at third, that had he not touched, would have scored both Raterman and Boerger. As it was, Gortner retrieved the ball behind the bag and held Boerger to third base, Raterman scoring ahead of him to tie the score.
“It was another one of those balls that we hit hard, we just didn’t get both runs out of it,” said Sturwold, shaking his head. “I don’t know, another couple of inches and maybe it’s a different ballgame.”
In the meantime, Jay Schulze had taken the game upon his shoulders in relief of Hoying, back with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Inheriting runners at first and third with one out, he wriggled out of the fourth without further damage beyond the two runs charged to Hoying and pitched the next 5 2/3 innings, surrendering just 1 run on five hit with four strikeouts.
“He pitched his guts out,” smiled Sturwold, in obvious admiration of Schulze’s effort. “He pitched like a senior today…and one that wanted to keep playing. I know he didn’t want to see his season come to an end.”
But end it did, without a third consecutive district title, and one that many had hoped quietly would end with an unprecedented third straight trip to the state tournament in two weeks. Schulze finished the day and his career with that pair of doubles. Justin Hoying had a pair of singles and a pair of rbis. Mitch Raterman had two singles…and that was it. Just six hits on what seemed to be twice that many hard-hit balls.
“Jay (Schulze) and Mitch Ahlers have had outstanding careers for us,” added Sturwold. “And obviously we have a strong nucleus returning to build around next year.”
But it was all too obvious that the future was the farthest thing from Bill Sturwold’s mind on Saturday afternoon. The game at hand was the only game he wanted. But credit Brian Kirschbaum, as Sturwold did, for bringing next year in focus long before anyone had planned…and that’s baseball, too.
For want of one base hit, Bill Sturwold got up Sunday morning and went back to work…on next year! |
