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Jaxon Anderson’s hit lifts Raiders
By Greg Gulas
Beaver Township
A flyout and two groundouts were all South Range right fielder Jaxon Anderson could manage during in his first three at-bats Tuesday against the Poland Bulldogs.
He was determined that he wasn’t going to waste a swing in his final at-bat.
Anderson’s two-run, opposite field single in the bottom of the seventh inning capped a four-run rally as the Raiders posted a 7-6, come from behind victory over the Bulldogs in Northeast 8 Conference action.
“I was just looking to get the job done for the team, hoping to get something in the outfield so we could at least score the tying run,” Anderson said. “It was a curve ball on the outside corner of the plate and I was able to put it over the first baseman’s head.
“We’re a different team than last year and I just think it shows how much heart this team has. We’re still trying to find ourselves, but definitely showed a lot of grit out there today.”
Trailing 6-3 heading to their final at-bat, Brandon Mikos led off the inning with a single, advanced to second on a Trey Pancake single then scored when Jared Bajerski followed with a run-scoring single to cut the Poland (3-1, 2-1 NE8) lead to 6-4.
It was Bajerski’s third single of the game and third run batted in.
“Honestly, at that point I was just trying to do anything to get us going,” Bajerski said. “I knew I was seeing sliders the entire at bat, so I was just trying to put the ball in play.”
After Jake Gehring was hit by a pitch, a walk to Ben Rivera with the bases loaded cut the deficit to 6-5, setting the stage for Anderson’s heroics.
South Range (4-0, 3-0) coach Jim Hanek appreciates his team’s quick start.
“We’ve gotten good pitching so far this season, it wasn’t Jake’s [Gehring] best day on the mound but he battled out there,” Hanek said. “Jake’s a competitor and he kept us in the game. I can’t say enough about our players and their ability to step up and battle back from a 5-0 deficit.
“Jaxon’s a senior and that’s what seniors do, they step up in big moments. He understood what the situation was. The infield was drawn in, he got a pitch on the outer half of the plate and hit it over the top of the infield. Also, what a great job Jared did carrying us offensively with key hits and a great effort behind the plate.”
Starting pitcher Braden Olson got the Bulldogs going offensively with a two-run single in the third inning that staked Poland to the early 2-0 advantage.
Run-scoring singles by Braeden O’Shaughnessy and Zachary Yaskulka, and a sacrifice fly by Jeremy Castro in the fifth increased the Bulldogs lead to 5-0 in the fifth inning.
The Raiders pulled to within 5-3 in their half of the fifth after Nick Habeth scored on a wild pitch and Bajerski’s added a two-run single.
Olson’s RBI single in the sixth frame gave Poland a 6-3 lead.
“It’s a tough one to lose. We just didn’t do what we had to do to finish it,” Bulldogs coach Rich Murray said. “Braden [Olson] did a nice job going into the sixth inning, but his pitch count got up there and we had to make the move. It’s April, so we’re not going to ruin a kid’s arm in April.
“We probably could have made some other moves, brought some other people in and we’ll learn from this. The one thing I’ll tell our team is that we’ve got to finish games. We had opportunities, made a couple bad pays in the field and just didn’t make the plays we needed to make today.”
Pancake finished with two hits and two runs scored while Mikos had two hits and a run scored for the Raiders.
Olson had three hits, three RBIs and a run scored, M.J. Farber two doubles and a run scored and O‘Shaughnessy two hits and a run scored, reaching base all four plate appearances for the Bulldogs.