By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
sports@thevillagereporter.com
DELTA (April 26, 2024) – With senior lefty Brody Waugh throwing blanks and a 6-0 lead, seemingly Delta had everything in hand over Hilltop heading into the final two innings.
However, the Cadets mounted a rally that chopped that six-run deficit to a mere one with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position before the Panthers recorded the final pair of outs to preserve a 7-6 victory.
For the first five innings, Waugh worked around four walks and an error without giving up a hit. His only real problem came in the third when two of those base on balls and a boot loaded the bases with one down.
However, Waugh got Terry Rebeck to bounce into an inning ending double play to extinguish the threat. “We needed that out of him today,” Panther coach Dustin Stickley expressed of Waugh’s effort on the mound.
“The way he battled on the mound today we needed all that. I hated to take him out, but we wanted him to be able to pitch next week so I had to take him out early, but he did a great job.”
Offensively the Panthers took a first inning lead against Cadet righty Devin Dempsey on Alex Brown’s one-out double to right center, Landon Griesinger’s hit, and a force play to go up 1-0.
Delta made it 3-0 in the second. Carlos DeSantos led off with a base hit up the middle, then a walk and Vinnie Maurer’s bunt single loaded the sacks where Brady Morr’s fly ball and a wild pitch marked two more Panther tallies.
Three more runs came in the third when Maurer led off with his second hit of the game, Morr singled and Brown chalked up his second knock of the day to load the bases with no outs.
Griesinger was hit by a pitch, a force play scored another run, and the Panthers worked the double steal in a first-and-third situation to get one more and a 6-0 lead.
“We’ve really had the bats coming on,” Stickley said after. “We faced some great pitching this week and we hit them all, we don’t always score runs like we did today, but we hit them so that’s one thing we concentrate on.”
At that point Stickley removed Waugh from the game after his strong performance but the Panther relievers struggled to hold the lead.
Wade Wagner got Hilltop’s first hit of the day off DeSantos and after two walks around two outs, Cameron Shimp rammed a bases clearing triple to right that sliced the Delta lead in half in the sixth.
Delta got one more run in the bottom of the sixth when Brown got his third hit of the game, stole second and came home on a two-out error.
That run proved vital in the top of the seventh as Griesinger went to the mound, and he struggled to find the plate, walking five Hilltop hitters to go with Cameron Schlosser’s run scoring single that had the Delta margin at a precarious one run with the bases full and one out.
Griesinger got Shimp on a 3-2 curve for strike three and then Brady Wagner on a fly to center to end it.
Waugh got the win, getting seven strikeouts around those previously mentioned four walks.
Dempsey took the loss, allowing six runs, all earned on nine hits with three walks and four strikeouts.
Wagner went the last two innings, allowing that unearned run in the sixth on one hit and struck out five Panthers.
HILLTOP 000 003 3 – 6 3 1
DELTA 120 301 x – 7 12 0
Records: Hilltop 10-6, Delta 4-10
WINNING PITCHER: Waugh (5 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 7 strikeouts, 4 walks) OTHER: DeSantos, Griesinger
LOSING PITCHER: D. Dempsey (4 innings, 9 hits, 6 runs, 4 strikeouts, 3 walks) OTHER: W. Wagner
LEADING HITTERS: (Hilltop) Shimp – triple, 3 RBIs; (Delta) Brown – double, 2 singles, 3 runs; Morr – 2 singles; Arroyo-Sierra – 2 singles, 2 RBIs; Maurer – 2 singles