43
Springfield rallies for another state trip
By STEVE WALKER
LORAIN
Never give up.
That’s the attitude the Springfield High baseball team had all season, and especially on Saturday.
Trailing Rittman 4-2 going into the seventh inning, the Tigers showed their resiliency with a magical six-run inning en route to an 8-5 win in the Division IV regional final played at the Pipe Yard.
“I knew if we got to our 3-4-5 guys, look out,” Springfield coach Matt Weymer said. “They’ve been great for us all year.
“They really came through again. When you don’t have a hole in your lineup — that makes you feel good about your chances.”
The game-winning hit came on Jake Noble’s hard-hit ball to the shortstop that could’ve been turned into an game-ending double play. However, a base running distraction kept the ball from being fielded cleanly, allowing Ronnie Bovo to give Springfield a 5-4 lead.
The seventh inning featured RBI singles by Bovo, Noble, Nick Russell and Mike Buchenic.
“I’ve been hitting the ball hard to the shortstop all day,” said Noble, who went 2-for-4 and also had a nice diving play in the first inning. “I just did the same thing, but I got lucky this time.
“Once we got into the dugout, we got pumped up,” Bovo said. “We weren’t going to let it end there. It feels amazing.
“Never give up. We don’t stop no matter how much we get down.”
With the win, the Tigers are heading to the state semifinals in Columbus where they’ll face the winner of the Hamler regional. Their last trip to state was in 2009 when they finished state runner-up.
“I can’t even tell you how exciting that was,” Weymer said. “These guys, all year, have had that never-say-die attitude. They could’ve got negative, but the fact that they stuck with it, shows a great team effort. That’s all you can say.”
The win bailed out a spoiled fifth inning where the Tigers had bases loaded with one out and failed to score. Aaron Yoder hit a routine flyball to left field that Logan Rufener dropped, but pinch-runner Anthony Scandy was confused, thinking Rufener caught it and headed back to third.
The third baseman noticed, received a throw from the left fielder, stepped on third for a force out and chased him down, throwing home to nail him.
“You’re kind of stuck there,” Weymer said. “When he came back, the kid dropped the ball. He was kind of left hanging. It was a corny play. That was at the time I was like ‘Boy, maybe this isn’t our day’, but these guys bailed us out again.”
The Tigers led early on after Buchenic blasted a shot over the left fielder’s head for an RBI triple, scoring Noble in the second inning.
Rittman grabbed a 3-1 lead on a three-run triple by Lance Horner in the third inning. They added a run in the sixth on an RBI single by Ian Underation to score Dylan Litman, who led off with a double.
“It felt great after not doing so well [Friday],” said Nick Russell, who went the distance and struck out seven, while also going 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs. “I came back today and threw harder.
“I threw a lot of fastballs and I threw my curveball better than usual,” Russell said. “[After the rally] I felt a lot more excited and comfortable. I just threw strikes. That’s all I had to do. My team backed me up.”