SPARTA – In a game where every play was a big play and every player made a contribution, it fittingly came down to the final play.
Cooper Merckling laid down a squeeze bunt that scored Zach Pinkerton in the 11th inning to give the Highland baseball team a 4-3 win over Lakewood.
“It was a long, long game,” Pinkerton said. “But Coop made an amazing bunt and allowed us to take it home. The adrenaline was real. My mind wasn’t all there. But I knew I had one goal and that was to score.”
It’s the first district championship for the Fighting Scots since 2006 — the second of a back-to-back and the third overall.
“A lot of these guys were still in diapers the last time Highland went to regionals,” Highland coach Donnie Kline said. “I hope they celebrate that, and I hope it sinks in to how big this is to our program and how big it is for them especially.”
The winning run was scored on an obstruction call because the catcher was blocking the plate. With the bases loaded, there was a force play at home. But Pinkerton thought he scored anyway.
“I’m pretty sure I got my arm around him,” Pinkerton said. “But he was definitely blocking the plate.”
Kline thought the play was a game of chess with his Lakewood counterpart Don Thorpe.
“If you go back even a (couple) of batters when we had runners at first and second with Kadin Johnson up ... that’s almost an automatic bunt for us,” Kline said. “But I thought they were looking for the bunt and KJ’s been swing a hot bat. It didn’t work out for us. But then (Brock Church) got on base.”
Shortstop Ryan Davis ran past the pitcher, crowding the plate with first baseman Noah Blade. They did the same on the pitch before, but the pitch was high and Merckling couldn’t get the bunt down.
“Cooper’s strength is his bunting,” Kline said. “He can literally put it on the chalk every time. The first (pitch) they had the jet play where the shortstop comes screaming in there. He went to bunt and he missed it.”
Kline elected not to take off the bunt and it worked. Blade fielded it, and the ball and Pinkerton got to catcher Trey Smith at roughly the same time.
“I don’t know if they thought we’d take it off or not,” Kline said. “I didn’t think they would double him up. Even if they get a force out at the plate, we flip it over and I’ve got one more shot with Rider Minnick with the bases loaded.”
“I got a little nervous, but I’ve been bunting pretty well this year,” Merckling said. “A couple of times, I’ve been put in the game late for a suicide squeeze. I just knew my team needed me to come in and get a job done. It was hard because they knew it was coming. But the catcher covered the plate and we got bailed out.”
It was a good, old-fashioned pitchers’ duel. Blake Jodrey, who pitched the final 2 1/3 innings of Tuesday’s district semifinal win over Hartley, set down the first 11 batters he faced before a walk in the fourth.
Jodrey was hung with two unearned runs on four hits and two walks with three strikeouts over six innings for the Scots, who were the second seed in Division II.
Meanwhile, the Scots scored twice in the first inning. They had three hits through two innings but were shut down by Lakewood pitcher Colt Vierstra, who allowed no hits over the next five innings. Highland had one base runner reach on an error during that span.
Vierstra went nine innings and allowed two unearned runs on five hits with four strikeouts overall. He added three hits and two runs at the plate.
After a Landon Grosse two-run single in the sixth tied it up, sixth-seeded Lakewood took its first lead on a Ryan Ogilbee squeeze bunt that scored Vierstra in the 10th inning.
Minnick came through in the bottom half with a lead-off single. He stole second base and scored on Randy Cain’s soft liner to right, just beating the throw home.
“I got marks from the (catcher’s) spikes,” Minnick said. “He landed right on me. But a run’s a run and that was clutch.”
Owen Mott got the win, allowing one earned run on two hits and a walk with three strikeouts over the final 3 2/3 innings of play.
Brock Church had three hits and Minnick finished with two hits and two runs to lead the Scots, who play Dayton Carroll in a regional semifinal at 5 p.m. on Thursday at Mason.
