May 27, 2000

New Riegel advances to regional finals

By Matt Steiner
Sports Writer

LIMA &emdash; For those watching the Division IV regional Friday between New Riegel and Riverdale, the entire game is probably a blur. Except for the bottom of the seventh inning, of course.

New Riegel put an exclamation point on a hard fought game by scoring three runs in the last inning to overcome a 4-2 Riverdale lead and advance to the regional finals with a 5-4 win.

The Blue Jackets came to bat in the inning and put two runners on base with a pair of singles by Paul Borer and Keith Laughlin.

"We told them it wasn't over yet," New Riegel coach Dave Uitto said. "We told the first couple of batters to be patient and make sure there was a strike on them before they did anything. We wanted to get some base runners."

Joe Schalk, pinch-hitting for Aaron Lafontaine, followed the hits by laying down a bunt along the third base line. Riverdale pitcher Jake Larbus fielded the ball, but Schalk beat the throw to load the bases.

"It has worked like a million dollars," Uitto said. "That's the third time I put Joe Schalk in to bunt in that same situation in the tournament. Today he gets the good bunt down and they can't throw him out. In the games before when he did it, he got the good bunt down and it put him on. I'm saving that move for when I want to get into heaven. Joe Schalk will bunt me into heaven. And he's only a freshman. He handled that pressure so well."

Falcon coach Pat Weber opted to go to his bullpen at that point, bringing in the fresh arm of junior Eric Trout.

The first batter Trout faced, hit a sharp grounder toward third. Larbus had taken Trout's spot at the hot corner when the pitching change was made. The junior fielded the ball cleanly, stepped on the bag to get Laughlin and immediately threw the ball toward first for what appeared to be a routine double play.

But the ball sailed high over first baseman Nick Dunbar's head and into a group of New Riegel fans. Borer scored, making it 4-3 with runners on second and third with just one out.

"Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals," Weber said. In fact that was all the coach could talk about. "Fundamentals wins it in baseball. It's high school baseball, I guess. They make mistakes."

Trout struck out the next batter for the second out of the inning then walked Darin Nye. A shot from the bat of Brett Hammer bounced off Larbus' foot, bringing in the tying run. The bases remained loaded.

The stage was set for Jon Kauffman. The junior outfielder bounced what appeared to be another routine play toward Dunbar at first.

"There was a little bit of pressure, but I figured, we've got the tie," Kauffman said. "If I mess it up, than we're still tied. When I hit the ball it went right to the first baseman. I saw that he was pretty far down the line and I thought maybe I could run it out. He wasn't that fast running over so I knew I had a shot."

Kauffman definitely had a shot as the "fundamentals" failed the Falcons once again. Trout stood like a statue on the pitcher's mound instead of covering first to help his teammate.

Kauffman took his shot and slid for the bag. The umpire signaled safe and the New Riegel bench spilled onto the field to celebrate the victory.

"Jonny's a great hitter. That's why he's batting cleanup. He struggled a little bit in the game and he was hanging his head a little bit. So I called him before he hit and I said, 'Hey, just smile one time and have some fun and put the ball in play.'"

And he put the ball in play.

For the next few minutes both ends of the emotional spectrum were present. As the Blue Jackets smiled, yelled and high-fived in celebration, the Falcons gazed in disbelief across the field as the victory, which appeared in hand, had slipped through their fingers.

"It was a great game to win and a terrible game to lose," Uitto said.

The game began as was predicted. Laughlin, New Riegel's ace, appeared untouchable as he tossed four perfect innings, striking out six, including a stretch of four straight K's. He even fanned the side in the third on just 12 pitches.

The Blue Jackets held on to a 2-0 lead, thanks to a Darin Nye solo homer in the first and an RBI triple by Brett Hammer, which sent Nye home for his second run in the third.

However, the Falcon bats came to life in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. It appeared they had solved the Laughlin puzzle.

"They've got a pretty good hitting lineup," Uitto said. "And the second time through, he just threw too many fastballs and they put the bat on them. Earlier in the year, he'd mess around with the breaking ball a little. We told him, 'blow those kids away,' which he's done all year long, and now we get to a better hitting team. You can blow them away once, but you're probably not going to blow them away twice. You do have to come with some off speed stuff. And that's my fault. We didn't talk about that."

Riverdale scored twice in the fourth on RBIs by Ben Larbus and Dunbar, making it 2-2. In the fifth, right fielder Jared George doubled and scored on a single by Travis Weber.

The Falcons scored an insurance run in the seventh when Nye committed an error, putting Jake Larbus on first. A wild pitch from Laughlin gave him second and Ben Larbus drove him home with a single to left field, taking the 4-2 lead into bottom of the inning.

Laughlin (9-1) got the win with 11 strikeouts and no walks. He threw two wild pitches.

Trout took the loss in relief. He struck out one Blue Jacket and walked another. Jake Larbus fanned four New Riegel batters and walked one in 6 innings.

New Riegel (20-6) will face Ayersville (19-5) for the regional championship today at Bath High School. Game time is 1 p.m.