Don't call it a comeback. Call it a crazy comeback. Blood dripping from his nose following a raucous celebration, while trying to choke back tears, North East's Colt Price understandably could not control his emotions as he attempted to describe his team's remarkable comeback victory over Rising Sun Saturday afternoon. "We got down," Price said. "In baseball, you don't want to drop your head when you get down, but we got down a lot and it was looking rough for us. The last inning, these dudes, family, bro. They fought to the end, man. It's crazy." Trailing by eight runs in the sixth and down 11-5 entering the bottom of the seventh, the Indians erupted for seven runs to secure a "shocking" 12-11 win over the Tigers.
Rising Sun reliever Brandon Snyder fanned the first hitter of the frame. Then: hit by pitch, walk, single, single, error, hit by pitch, single, single, single, walk. Game over. "It's crazy," Indians infielder Payton Hoskins said. "Biggest comeback I've ever been a part of. Especially against a rival like that, that's huge. Keep moving on. Next game." An RBI single by Andy Jones made it 11-6 and gave North East more reason to believe. Rising Sun senior catcher Johnny Kampes began to suspect it was not going to end well for his squad. "The last three or four batters, it just seemed like they couldn't be stopped," said Kampes. With the score 11-8, Price delivered a two-run single up the middle. Chase Hollister singled sharply to left, too sharply as it turned out, because baserunner Cameron Blankenship had no chance to score on the play and was held at third. North East had a golden opportunity to win the game when Kyle Miller's towering drive landed over the head of the Tigers' right fielder near the base of the fence. But only one run scored and the bases remained loaded. That brought DH Matt Ross to the plate and he drew a walk to force home Price with the winning run. "This team always fights," said Hoskins. "We never give up. This was our biggest comeback ever." Rising Sun will remember it as the one that got away. "It's tough," Kampes said. "We played 6 1/3 innings, realistically. We played 6 1/3 innings of great, perfect baseball. We just blew it in the last inning." It is the third straight season, North East ousted Rising Sun from the region tournament. "Walks and errors killed," Rising Sun coach Steven Barker said. "Especially with a good hitting team like that, walking the bottom of the lineup after getting the first guy out. It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt any team. We made substitutions and we just couldn't produce. I guess it wasn't meant to be." Rising Sun scored a run in the top of the second and never trailed until the end. Nick Brammer singled with two outs, advanced to second on an Evan Wallace single, and scored on Tyler Pritchard's base hit to center. The Tigers tallied four times in the third. Phil Lyons ignited the uprising with a bunt hit and Kampes lined a single over the outstretched glove of the third baseman. The runners moved up when Zac Chadwick was retired on a high chopper to first. After Brett Valentin walked to load the bases, Kenny Dollenger provided an RBI single to right. Brammer walked to force in a run, Wallace plated a run with a single up the middle, and Pritchard got his second RBI of the game on a sacrifice fly. A Price sac fly got the Indians within 5-1 before Rising Sun countered with a run in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Dollenger which scored Lyons. The Tigers widened the lead to 9-1 with three runs in the fifth. Wallace and Pritchard walked and Colin Harkey moved the runners up a base with a sac bunt. Wallace was caught between third and home on a grounder and eventually tagged out, Kampes came through with an RBI single and another run scored on an error on the play. Kampes stole third and scored when the throw went into left field. Miller and Ross had back-to-back RBI hits in the home half to narrow the gap to 9-3. Rising Sun scored a pair of runs in the top of the sixth and had an eight-run cushion with the Indians down to their final six outs. The Tigers only got four of them. In the bottom of the sixth, Payton Hoskins' two-run single, his third hit of the day, trimmed the deficit down to 11-5. North East tried to remain optimistic heading into its final at bat. "Going into the last inning, I figured, why not?," said Price. "Why not give it a shot? That's what we did." While Price fought back tears of joy following the game, Kampes was nearly moved to tears of heartbreak. "The fact that we played great, it's just so shocking that we [gave up] six runs in 2/3 of an inning," Kampes said. "It's just really shocking." Comments are closed.
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