DIVISION IV REGIONAL BASEBALL Maplewood subdues Reserve, 6-4

After starting 8-12, the Rockets are playing their best baseball of the season.
By RYAN JONES
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
ELYRIA -- It looks like hard work has paid off for the Maplewood High baseball team.
With Friday's 6-4 victory over Western Reserve, the Rockets clinched their second trip to a regional final, the first since 1992.
Today at 1 p.m., the Rockets will square off against the Windham Bombers at George Day Field here in the Division IV regional finale.
Things looked a little shaky at the beginning of the tournament season for Maplewood, who came in with an 8-12 record.
However, those worries have been stifled. "We've won four games in a row under two runs now," Maplewood coach Mark Trevelline said. "This was a two-run game, Bristol was a two run game, Newbury and Fairport were one run games.
"We definitely saved the best for last tonight," Trevelline said.
Hits were not hard to come by as the Rockets and Blue Devils racked up 11 and 14 hits, respectively.
Devils strike first
Western Reserve jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
Second basemen Kyle Kekic hit a double to left-center field and scored from second two batters later when Luke Srock singled to left.
Maplewood came up with its first of two big innings in the bottom of the second.
Joe Young and Mark Chronister both singled to left off Blue Devil pitcher Jason Young. Andy Thorton added an infield single on a bunt towards the third base side.
Young fielded the bunt and errantly threw off target to first base. Both Young and Chronister scored, Thorton advanced to second on the error.
Cather Brian Wayne immediately followed with and RBI double off the left field wall, scoring Thorton for a 3-1 lead.
Western Reserve head coach Paul Henderson said, "We had two mental base-running and defensive errors that cost us four runs between the four mishaps. Those mistakes really came back to hurt us."
Rally
Brandon Keck led off the inning with a single to right field, which quickly became a double once Thorton misplayed the ball in right field.
Keck advanced to third on Adam McDougal's single to left. McDougal stole second, and both Keck and McDougal scored on Andrew Lenhardt's single to center to even the score at three. The Rockets responded in the fifth. Bryan White singled to right and scored on Bob Odvar's two run blast to straight away center that put Maplewood up 5-3.
Trevelline said, "Bob batted .556 during the season and was the leading hitter in Trumbull County, if I'm not mistaken."
One more run was added in the fifth frame after Brian Hivick was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a wild pitch, stole third base, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Young.
The Devils added one run in the top of the seventh frame when Chris Mountain scored after singling to short, advancing to second on a passed ball, and scoring from second after a throwing error to second base on Srock's single.