By Andy Amey
The Tribune-Star
BRAZIL
May 10, 2008 12:06 am
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You don’t often think of high school baseball games decided by the 10-run rule as being up for grabs. The phrase “come-from-behind win” is rarely used in those situations.
But both those things happened in Western Indiana Conference play Friday night at Northview, where the host Knights romped to 12 runs in their last two at-bats immediately after wasting a scoring chance that seemed ready to haunt them.
“It was a lot closer than it looked,” a relieved coach Gary Witham said, after his team had — yes — come from behind to beat Owen Valley 14-4 on a drizzly evening.
Northview fans who had endured a recent seven-game losing streak were dreading at one point that the turning point of the game had come in the bottom of the fourth and top of the fifth innings.
After two hitless innings against Patriot sophomore Dylan Christenberry, the Knights had tied the score 2-2 in the third on a two-run homer by Curt Peters, only to strand Keaton Robertson after a leadoff triple in the next inning.
“I was not a happy camper,” Witham said after the game. “This is a game of opportunities, and you’ve got to get the ball out of the infield [with a man on third base], especially when you’ve got your No. 4, 5 and 6 hitters coming up … but later in the game, those same guys stepped up and got hits.”
Robertson’s run that didn’t score loomed even larger in the top of the fifth, when Northview starting pitcher Brock Lawson — celebrating his 16th birthday with a 14-strikeout outing — suffered his only spell of wildness and put two runners on base with one out.
Second baseman Matt Nodley made a spectacular diving, over-the-shoulder catch of a popup for the second out — “I didn’t know if I could get to it or not; you just have to sprint and do what you can,” he said later — but Craig Roberts got his third hit of the night to drive in the lead run and Cody Vest sliced an RBI double to right.
But Nodley led off the bottom of the inning with a walk, Peters followed with a single, and pinch-hitter Scott Wheeler doubled to the wall in left to drive in both runners. Ryne Barr’s deep drive to right was misjudged for another RBI double, and the Knights went on to get seven hits, draw 10 walks and take advantage of three wild pitches in the final two innings while the Patriots ran out of pitching.
“Scotty Wheeler had a big hit, and Brock Lawson really got his curveball working tonight,” Witham said afterward.
Roberts’ two-run double gave the visitors a quick lead in the top of the first inning, and Christenberry got through the first two frames by facing the minimum six batters.
Then Nodley led off the third inning by lining a double down the left-field line, and Peters put his first varsity homer on the street beyond the left-field fence three pitches later.
“[Christenberry] threw me a curveball down in the dirt, and I had a feeling another one was coming,” Nodley said later. “It hung there, and I got a double out of it.”
“It was exciting,” Peters said of his homer. “It was nice to get the game tied.
“Falling behind is tough for any team, and [the homer] got everybody back pumped up.”
That inning was an indication of what was to come in one sense. The Knights got production throughout their lineup, while Lawson dominated all but four hitters near the top of the Owen Valley batting order.
“That hasn’t always been true all year,” said Witham, when asked about his team’s deep lineup, “but it was true today.”
Peters reached base all four times he batted, and although he was lifted for a pinch runner on one occasion he was able to score the game’s last run from second base on a wild pitch (with two out and a full count, he’d sprinted almost all the way to third by the time the pitch had been delivered).
“Speed’s something new for me,” Peters admitted.
Winning three in a row is something that seems new for the Knights, but they are happy to do it.
“This boosts our confidence way up. Now I hope we can get two [more wins today in a doubleheader at Danville],” said Peters.
“We were down on ourselves. We had no hope,” Nodley said. “Now we know we can play hard and play as a team.”
Witham is enjoying the revival too. “Break us up,” he quipped after the game.
Northview 14, Owen Valley 4
Owen Valley ab r h bi Northview ab r h bi
JHrshbrgr cf 4 0 0 0 Barr lf 4 1 1 1
Mosier lf 2 2 1 0 Stevenson ph 0 0 0 1
Turley 2b-p 3 1 1 0 Lancaster cf 2 2 1 0
Roberts ss 3 0 3 3 Robertson c 3 2 2 0
Vest 1b 3 0 2 1 Crooks 1b 4 1 2 2
Clark c 3 0 0 0 Pestoff 3b 4 0 0 0
Hobbs 3b 2 0 0 0 Butts pr 0 1 0 0
Crstnbry p-2b 2 0 0 0 Niehaus ss 2 0 0 0 Pttjhn rf-p 1 1 0 0 Nodley 2b 2 3 1 1
Hamilton p-rf 1 0 0 0 Peters dh 2 2 2 2
Kirk pr 0 1 0 0
Lawson p 0 0 0 0
Kruse rf-pr 1 1 1 1
Wheeler ph 1 0 1 2
Totals 24 4 7 4 Totals 25 14 11 10
Owen Valley 200 020 — 4
Northview 002 075 — 14
Two outs when game-deciding run scored.
E — Roberts. LOB — OV 6, Northview 6. 2B — Roberts, Nodley, Vest, Wheeler, Barr, Lancaster. 3B — Robertson. HR — Peters (1). SB — Turley, Butts. CS — Lancaster. SF — Nodley.
IP H R ER BB SO
Owen Valley
Christenberry (L, 2-3) 4 7 7 7 3 2
Pettijohn 2/3 1 2 2 4 0
Hamilton 2/3 3 3 3 0 0
Turley 1/3 0 2 2 4 0
Casey-Westfield
Lawson (W, 3-2) 6 7 4 4 4 14
Christenberry pitched to 5 batters in 5th.
WP — Christenberry, Hamilton 2, Turley. T — 2:19.
Next games — Northview (7-11, 3-2 in Western Indiana Conference) has a doubleheader today at Danville. Owen Valley (4-8, 1-4) has a home game Monday against South Putnam.
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