SoutheasternOhioPreps.com

Late run leads to 3-2 win for Buckeyes

By TROY BOLIN
Special to The Messenger
Published: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 3:03 AM EDT

NELSONVILLE — The story seems all wrong. The casting is completely out of place. Someone has tinkered with the script. Nelsonville-York winning a baseball tournament game?

At a school where football dominates the landscape, the Buckeye baseball team added their own exciting chapter to a book filled with post season victories from the gridiron.

By scoring a run with one out in the bottom half of the seventh inning Tuesday, Nelsonville-York was able to pull out a thrilling 3-2 victory over Southeastern in a Division III Southeast District first round tournament game at Nelsonville-York High School.

Some of the talk around the diamond at Blackburn Fields even revolved around some of the players perhaps being able to start off-season football workouts. But now that the Buckeyes have advanced, those players planning on hitting the weight room will now have to wait — at least until after Friday.

With the victory, the No. 8 seed Buckeyes (6-15) will travel to Zane Trace to take on the No. 1 seed Pioneers Friday at 5 p.m.

After Southeastern (7-17) scored a run in the top half of the fourth Tuesday to take a 2-1 lead, Nelsonville-York seemed to be on the wrong end of a momentum shift and was in danger of letting the game slip away. But the Buckeyes rallied in the bottom of the fifth inning after Nick Hunter was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on an error, and scored on Mark Campbell’s RBI single to left — which tied the score at two.

“We played with a little enthusiasm, we hustled and played with some desire,” said Buckeyes head coach Rocky Smathers after his team won and advanced to play in the sectional championship game. “We seemed to have games where we play like that and other games where we don’t. When we do play like we did today, we’re a pretty decent team.”

With the score deadlocked at two after five, starting pitcher Nick Hunter was able to shut down the Panther offense over the last two innings after getting their top of the order out 1-2-3 in the fifth. Hunter hit Adam Cottrill with a pitch to start the sixth, but regrouped to get Christian Colburn to hit into an unconventional 1-3-5 double play, and then got Ben Davis to fly out to center to end the inning.

The young righty went back to work in the seventh by striking out Josey Holloway to start the inning, then induced two ground balls to freshman Casey Cox to end inning.

“It took Nick a little while to find the strike zone, but once he did, I thought from the fourth inning on he took over the game,” said Smathers. “He had a heck of a game in my opinion. It took him about three innings to find the zone, but once he did I thought he totally shut them down.”

It didn’t take the Buckeyes long to seal the deal during their last at-bat. Campbell walked, stole second base then moved to third on an errant throw from catcher Adam Cottrill. With senior Chance Fox at the plate and one out, the lead off hitter bounced a high chopper back to the mound, which allowed Campbell to score from third after pitcher Tyler Osborn went to first with the ball instead of home plate.

The snap decision by Osborn turned out to be the wrong one as the lightning quick Campbell easily scooted home once the throw was made. After sending only three hitters to the plate during its last at-bat, Nelsonville-York was able to capture a thrilling 3-2 victory and advances to play in the sectional championship game at Zane Trace.

“Defensively we’ve been playing decent games and we fielded the ball well tonight,” said Smathers. “We did have two errors but we had some outstanding plays as well. Casey Cox did a really great job at shortstop tonight and made quite a few real nice plays. Justin Robinson came in and made a great play on a double play at first base.

“We’re capable of playing like that,” added Smathers. “We did a nice job in the outfield too. We caught the balls I thought we should have and we did a nice job at the plate. I would have liked to have swung the bats a little better, but we did swing the bat good enough to win the game.”

Nelsonville-York scored in the bottom of the first after Nathan Dean walked, moved to second on a wild pitch, then crossed the plate on a Conner Bunting RBI single to right. Hunter gave up one run in the top half of the second to make it a 1-1 game, then another run in the fourth. The Buckeyes answered with a run in the fifth to tie the score at two, which set up Campbell’s winning sprint to the plate in the seventh.

Hunter pitched all seven innings to pick up the win. He gave up two runs on four hits, struck out three and walked four. Nelsonville-York collected five hits led by Campbell, who had an RBI single, walked and scored a run. Bunting had an RBI single, Cox and Fox each had a single and Dean added a single and a run scored.


Southeastern 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 — 2

Nelsonville-York 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 — 3

NY — Hunter and Dean; S— Osborn and Cottrill

WP — Hunter; LP — Cottrill