43
Creekside captures 16U title in extras
By charles grove
struthers
What appeared to be a game that was going to be decided by a few runs turned out to be nothing but. Creekside Fitness ripped apart Knightline 12-5 to win the series 3-1 and take home the 16U Class B title.
Creekside leaped out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning when they jumped on Knightline starter Brandon Walters, who had issues keeping the ball down in the zone. A bases-loaded walk by Anthony Laird started the scoring and a first-pitch line drive by Brennen Olesh tripled the advantage.
The teams were slated to play a fifth game if Knightline won game four, but Creekside head coach Lonnie Laird said he didn’t want his team holding back and taking it easy in game four.
“We knew they had a ton of offensive firepower and they were hot coming in so I told them we had to win game one today,” Lonnie said. “We didn’t want to give them another chance because we knew they’d take advantage of it.”
That firepower reared its head in the bottom of the second when a bloop hit by Lucas Mosora and walks by John Ritter and Walters loaded the bases. Robert Russo hit a chopper to the pitcher that Sebastian Lay couldn’t handle to make it 3-1 before a passed ball got Knightline within a run.
Noah Rinker laced a two-run double a few pitches later and Creekside’s early lead went up in smoke as Knightline grabbed a 4-3 lead.
But all that firepower was drowned out the moment Lonnie brought in Olesh in relief.
Olesh pitched the final two-thirds of the second inning and then pitched the remaining five innings, allowing one run in the third on a Ritter double that made it 5-3 Knightline. Olesh struck out six in the process.
There were questions about whether Olesh was going to continue on the mound after the skies opened up in the top of the eighth inning, causing a lengthy rain delay. But Olesh wasn’t giving up that ball even as he was forced to watch the grounds crew scramble to cover the field.
“I just wanted to stay warm and stay loose. I wanted to finish it,” Olesh said. “I’m not going to pitch for another couple of weeks and so I just rolled with it.”
Creekside forced extra innings after a Garrett Mihalick RBI triple in the fourth and a Kevin Ferguson RBI single to tie the game after Rinker dropped a foul ball that would have ended the Creekside threat.
In extra innings it was no contest. Olesh led off with a single and Kevin Ferguson doubled before Alex Altmire flared a single to left field to give Creekside a 6-5 lead.
“They had been working me away all game and I had been having a rough day at the plate,” Altmire said. “I fouled a couple pitches off before I went with a fastball outside and it just fell in.”
From there it only got worse for Knightline as the lead blossomed to seven before Knightline could get back to the dugout. And Olesh had few issues setting the opposition down in the bottom of the eighth to seal the win.
“We had 16 kids from 11 communities at the beginning of the season so we knew we had to get this team to grow together,” Lonnie said. “We preached to them they needed to play their best at the end of the season and they really did.”