Friday, May 31, 2019
By Marty Gitlin
STRONGSVILLE
Generosity is a wonderful trait in a human being. But generosity on a baseball field? Not at all.
The Springfield and Mathews baseball teams traded quite unintentional moments of generosity Thursday afternoon. And in the end, that of the Mustangs allowed the Tigers to survive another day with a 3-2 victory in a Division IV regional semifinal at Strongsville High School.
Springfield (26-3) will meet the winner of today’s regional semifinal between Attica Seneca East and Jeromesville Hillsdale at noon on Saturday for a shot at its seventh state tournament berth. It lost in the title round of its previous six, including 2009, 2011 and 2013.
Thursday’s other semifinal was rained out, which pushed the regional final to Saturday.
The bouts of generosity between two teams that had fielded the ball cleanly to that point began in the last of the sixth inning with the Tigers up 2-0. Right-hander Shane Eynon, who had abandoned his fastball in favor of his slider and curve, retired the first batter before allowing a walk. Springfield shortstop Drew Clark, who had doubled and scored in the second, then misfired an easy flip to second on a force play to place runners at first and third. And after snagging a throw for the second out, first baseman Chris Thompson unwisely tried to catch the runner advancing to third and he too threw it away.
Tie game.
Mathews (20-4) returned the favor in the bottom of the seventh after a walk and balk put leadoff hitter Brannon Brungard in scoring position. After a groundout sent him to third, Mustangs coach Jared Telecky, who had replaced starting pitcher Adam Wibert for Zach Rhodanz, signaled for two intentional walks. The strategy appeared to pay off when Clayton Nezbeth hit an infield grounder, but the ball bounced off the glove of shortstop Brandon Smith as the winning run scored.
Terlecky believed the conditions played a role in the deciding miscue. “When I was hitting in warmups I saw that the moisture made the ball slippery out there,” he said. “And when the ball was hit it had some pretty good spin on it.”
The error allowed Eynon to remain unbeaten this season. But far more importantly, it kept Springfield alive. Good thing, too, because he simply did not have the velocity or control of his fastball.
“The last two innings I threw only sliders and curveballs,” said Eynon, who added that he remained faithful that his defense would make plays behind him after the game-tying errors. “Being a pitcher you have to remain calm and not let any frustration get to you.”
The Tigers didn’t let the talents of Wibert get to them early in the game. They waited patiently at the plate and used the whole field, often taking pitches the opposite way. The result was the 2-0 lead thanks to RBI singles by Thompson and Eynon in the first two innings respectively. But Wilbert later locked in and Springfield lost some of the patience that had provided the advantage.
“What we had worked on we got away from after a while,” explained Tigers coach Terry Dobson. “Our approach at the plate wasn’t the same for a couple innings and we didn’t see it again until around the sixth when we started to get it. We were very fortunate.”
Both teams were fortunate in the last two innings. But the Tigers gained the last bit of generosity. And because of it, they are still alive in the quest for their first state championship.