D4 SECTIONAL SEMIFINAL … Raace Haynes surrendered just three hits and tallied eight strikeouts on the mound for Hilltop in an 11-1 win over Fayette. (PHOTO BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
By: Joe Blystone
WEST UNITY – Old baseball proverb says, ‘thou who givest the least will winneth’.
OK well maybe it doesn’t go EXACTLY like that, but Hilltop took advantage of four early Fayette errors and a near mistake free pitching performance from Raace Haynes to score an 11-1 win over Fayette to advance in the Division IV Sectional tournament.
“We had all the respect for Fayette, they had us on the brink a couple times this year,” Cadet coach Tony Gerig expressed.
“We were not taking them lightly. They are getting better, Coach (Matt) Maginn has done a nice job. We were prepared for a dogfight today and our kids were ready. They got a run on us, and we settled down.”
The only run the Eagles mustered was in the first when Wyatt Mitchell and Shane Maginn singled to put runners at first and third with one down, then worked a double steal for Fayette’s only marker of the day.
Carter Lavinder led off the second with a base hit to right but from that point on, Haynes was perfect, setting down the next 15 Eagle hitters, seven of those by way of strikeouts.
Hilltop knotted the game in the bottom of the first without a hit on a dropped fly ball in left, a hit batsman and a two-out error on a grounder to first against Maginn.
Two walks and another Eagle miscue on a dropped throw at first plated the go-ahead Hilltop run in the second when Haynes helped himself at the plate.
The Cadets hurler served a base hit to left to score a pair to make it 4-1, then Cameron Schlosser drilled a double to deep center to score Haynes.
“They gave us an opportunity with a mistake, and we did what good teams do, take advantage of a mistake when opportunities are given,” Gerig said. “We haven’t always done that, this year we have had opportunities squeak by us.”
“That was huge for us to come back and score in the first inning and then tack on in the second because it set the tone for the rest of the day.”
Schlosser delivered again a couple innings later, this time with Mitchell on the mound.
After singles from Wade Wagner and Devin Dempsey, Schlosser drove a liner into the right field corner in which by the time Fayette corralled the baseball and got it in, Schlosser circled the sacks for a three-run, inside-the-park homer to blow the game open at 8-1.
“Cameron has had a rough couple of weeks,” Gerig explained. “He has hit the ball well but hasn’t had much to show for it. The last game before the tournament he had some nice swings and carried it over into today.”
Hilltop closed out the game in the bottom of the sixth. Dempsey’s second hit and another Eagle error put two on with one out.
Zander Runkel laced a double to right to score both runners and after a Tyzon Pelfrey single, Quinten Runkel looped a base hit to right center for the walk-off 10 run margin win.
Fayette committed six errors on the day, walked three hitters and hit one more.
Haynes did not walk a batter and gave up just the three afore mentioned hits.
The Cadets only miscue in the field was Haynes’ wide pickoff move after Lavinder’s single which he quickly made up for retiring the next three hitters.
FAYETTE 100 000 – 1 3 6
HILLTOP 140 303 – 11 11 1
Records: Fayette 5-12, Hilltop 13-9
WINNING PITCHER: Haynes (6 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 1 earned, 0 walks, 8 strikeouts)
LOSING PITCHER: Maginn (1.2 innings, 3 hits, 5 runs, 0 earned, 3, strikeouts, 2 walks) Other: Mitchell
LEADING HITTERS: (Fayette) – 3 singles; (Hilltop) Dempsey – 2 singles, 4 runs; Haynes – single, 2 RBIs; Schlosser – home run, single, 3 RBIs, 2 runs; Z. Runkel – double, single, 3 RBIs; Q. Runkel – 2 singles, RBI
Joe can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com