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Mathews gets tourney revenge with victory over Springfield
By chuck housteau
struthers
One year ago in district play, the Springfield Tigers overcame a seventh-inning deficit to knock Mathews out of the Division IV tournament.
Thursday night at Cene Park, the Mustangs got their revenge with a nearly flawless 2-0 victory.
“I wouldn’t call it sweet revenge,” said Mathews coach Dan Kennedy. “I’m just so happy and proud of our kids. We’ll worry about our next game in a little while but we are going to enjoy this right now.”
The Mustangs (19-4) will face Columbiana for the district championship today at 6:30 p.m. at Cene Park.
The Mustangs got the only run they would need against Springfield ace Jim Behnke (6-1) in the third inning.
Colin Bowser and Rick Sommers opened the inning with sharp singles and Mathews loaded the bases when John Homan beat out a sacrifice bunt attempt.
Chris Morgan then drew a walk to drive in Bowser for the first run of the game. Behnke came back to right the ship and retired the next three batters without allowing another runner to score.
“I was just looking for a good pitch to hit,” said Morgan, the team’s cleanup hitter and starting pitcher. “I wasn’t going to swing at anything bad with the bases loaded and no outs.”
Morgan did his job on the mound as well, as he pitched into the fourth inning before Kennedy turned to Sommers to close out the game.
Morgan (5-0) gave up three hits, but he walked three and hit a batter.
The senior worked his way out of trouble in the first three innings, but Kennedy sensed that Morgan was tiring.
“Chris struggled a little, but he pitched great,” Kennedy said. “He hadn’t worked a lot the last two weeks, and after their eight and nine hitter reached base we made the move early with the top of their lineup coming up.
“The move paid off.”
Sommers was equally impressive as he gave up three hits and shut down the potent Tiger offense the rest of the game.
“Give them credit,” said Springfield coach Bob Beam. “They pitched well and made every play in the field.
“We had chances. We put pressure on them. We had men in scoring position and we just couldn’t get any big hits.”
The Tigers (21-7), who were in last year’s Division IV state final, left 10 runners stranded on the bases.
The Mustangs got an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning.