East Holmes#039; late rally beats SPSL in state final
Published 12:00 am Friday, July 29, 2005
SOUTH WEBSTER - Blooper reels are usually humorous. But for the South Point Senior League All-Stars, there was nothing funny about these bloopers.
Three bloop hits in the bottom of the seventh inning enabled Berlin East Holmes to rally past South Point 4-3 Wednesday and win the State Senior League Tournament.
"Give a lot of credit to East Holmes. They got the hit when they needed it," South Point coach D.L. McWhorter said. "They had a couple of flares in right field just out of our grasp."
The comeback spoiled a strong effort by South Point pitcher Trenton Moore who was hurling his third game in five days.
Moore struck out five, walked one and gave up 10 hits, five in the last inning.
"Moore showed a lot of guts, a lot of heart," McWhorter said. "If we make a couple of plays in the field behind him, we get out of this."
With South Point leading 3-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, No. 9 hitter Jack Nippert hit a shot into right field that fell just out of the reach of a diving rightfielder Joey Seagraves.
Matt Beachy and Joel Gauce had singles to load the bases. Steve Miller hit into a force play that scored Nippert and Beachy scored when the throw to first base went into the dugout.
Dustin Kaufman lined a double intp the gap to drive in the tying run and he scored the winning run on a bloop double just fair down the right field line by Brandon Wengard to end the game.
"We should've scored six or seven runs. We had opportunities early and didn't score. We had bases loaded and no outs in one inning and didn't score," McWhorter said.
South Point took a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
Jacob Orlando walked and Anthony Ross and Moore singled for a run. Chase McWhorter singled to drive in two runs.
The lead went to 3-0 in the second inning when Blaine Williamson walked, Chris Brown hit into a force play and Orlando reached on a two-base error that scored the run.
South Point2100000=341
East Holmes0000004=4112
Trenton Moore and Tyler Smith. Joel Gauce, Steve Miller (3), Lincoln Troyer (5) and Dustin Kaufman. W-Troyer. L-Moore (5-K, 1-BB). 2B-East Holmes: Jack Nipper, Dustin Kaufman. Hitting-South Point: Anthony Ross 1-3, Trenton Moore 1-3, Chase McWhorter 1-3, Chris Brown 1-3; East Holmes: Justin Miller 2-3, Matt Beachy 1-1, Joel Gauce 2-4, Dustin Kaufman 2-4, Brandon Wengard 2-4, Kenny Miller 1-3, Jack Nipper 1-3.