COLUMBUS — It’s long been known that baseball is a game of inches . . . which is how close the Wayne American Legion Post 43 Seniors came from being eliminated.
After losing in the second round of action Saturday, the Post 43 Seniors bounced back with a dominating win Sunday and used some late-inning heroics to keep their season alive heading into Tuesday’s final day of the B-4 area tournament at Pawnee Park.
The Seniors were one strike away from elimination Monday afternoon against Albion, but came through with some big plays — both offensively and defensively — to claim a 5-4 win over Albion and put them in Tuesday’s final night of action, where they would need to beat Battle Creek twice to advance to state (Tuesday’s results on front page).
Even after the game, coach Robbie Gamble was in a state of disbelief after his team yanked victory from the jaws of defeat.
“It was just crazy,” he said of the game-winning play made by Devin Anderson, who made a diving grab of a long fly ball by Albion’s Calvin Webster in center field, preventing the tying and winning runs from scoring and giving Wayne (21-8) the victory.
“They got a bloop single for a run and I didn’t want their best hitter beating us, so we walked him and went after the Webster kid and he hit the heck out of the ball,” Gamble said. “When he hit it, I thought Devin was under it but then it started tailing toward right field. He covered a lot of ground laid out to catch the ball.”
The amazing play sent Albion home and was worth an outfield dogpile as the Wayne players sprinted out to congratulate their teammate on the season-saving catch.
“It’s one of the best plays I’ve seen on a high school field,” Gamble said. “In a split second, either we win or they win and and it was really cool the way it ended.”
Wayne got on the board in the opening frame when Gavin Redden tripled and scored on a James Dorcey single to give the Post 43 Seniors the early advantage.
Aiden Liston, who had pitched in each of the first two games, held Albion scoreless until the fifth when they touched him for three runs to take a 3-1 advantage.
Wayne would get a run back in the sixth when Kaleb Moormeier scored and Wayne had two runners in scoring position later in the inning, but could not get any closer.
“Our two-out hitting has not been the best lately and that’s something we’re working on,” Gamble said. “We need to get after it early in the count, because the farther we go in the tournament, the better the pitching we see so we need to capitalize early in the count and hit the fastball when it’s throw to us in the strike zone.”
Coming down to their final opportunity in the top of the seventh, Calvin Starzl singled and moved to third base. Wayne was down to its final at bat when Moormeier worked a two-out walk before Will Leseberg came on to run for him. Liston followed with a two-out double in the gap in left center to put the lead back in Wayne’s hands, and he later scored on a passed ball for what proved to be an important insurance run.
Albion scored once and was down to its final out in the bottom of the seventh with the tying runner on third and the winning run on first when Webster’s long shot was caught by Anderson for the final out, giving Wayne the amazing come-from-behind victory and putting them in a 4 p.m. game Tuesday against Columbus Lakeview.
Liston and Dorcey both had two of Wayne’s seven hits in the win, with Moormeier, Redden and Starzl also adding hits. Liston went 6 2/3 before reaching the 105-pitch limit. He allowed six hits, walked two and struck out three before Dorcey came on for the save.
Having Liston go as long as he did was huge for Wayne’s pitching staff.
“We needed Aiden to go as deep as he did tonight so that we have pitching left to play two games Tuesday with Gavin (Redden), James (Dorcey) and Wyatt (Heikes),” Gamble said. “And we also have some Junior guys that we can use, so I think we’re in pretty good shape.”
On Friday, Wayne opened with an easy 9-2 win over Pierce, using four pitchers as Gamble limited each to 30 pitches in order to have them available for Saturday.
Wayne took advantage of an error and a passed ball to put two up in the opening frame, then used two errors and another passed ball to make it 5-0 after the second inning.
Pierce took advantage of back-to-back walks, an error and a wild pitch to score both of their runs in the fifth inning, but Wayne was not threatened after that as they advanced in the double-elimination tournament.
Jaxson Kneifl tripled and scored two runs with two RBI in the win. Four pitchers — Aiden Liston, James Dorcey, Wyatt Heikes and Gavin Redden — combined for the win.
On Saturday afternoon, Wayne's offense was limited by three Battle Creek pitchers as the American Legion Post 43 Seniors dropped a 4-2 decision.
Wayne got on the board in the third inning when Redden reached on an error and scored on a single by Kaleb Moormeier, giving the locals a 1-0 advantage.
Battle Creek tied the game in the fourth and took the lead for good in the fifth before adding two insurance runs in the sixth.
Wayne got another run in the seventh, putting together three straight hits as Heikes singled, moved to second on a Moormeier single and scored on a base hit by Liston.
Wayne out-hit Battle Creek 9-8 in the contest. Redden and Moormeier each had two hits and Redden stole two bases. Heikes, Liston, Dorcey, Anderson and Jase Dean also had hits.
In Sunday’s elimination game, the Post 43 Seniors advanced with an easy 10-1 win over Seward.
Wayne got all they would need in the third with five runs. The rally started when a bases-loaded error plated the first two runs. Liston scored on a wild pitch, Calvin Starzl singled home Heikes and Redden drew a bases-loaded walk to plate Dean to make it 5-0.
After Seward scored its only run of the game in the bottom of the fourth, Wayne came back with five more to end the game on the eight-run mercy rule. Anderson scored Kneifl on a sacrifice fly to start the rally and Starzl scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-1. Redden stole home, Moormeier scored on a wild pitch and Liston scored on a sacrifice fly by Dorcey to close out the scoring.
Redden had two of Wayne's four hits in the game, Anderson had a double and Heikes drove in two runs. Moormeier went the distance on the mound, allowing two hits and three walks while striking out 10.
