Manager Chris Tserkis Sr. says Hayden Spioch has been his team's most improved player over the last two seasons. Wednesday night's performance was further proof. Spioch pitched well, homered, and delivered the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to propel Rising Sun to the District 5 Little League baseball title with a 7-6 triumph over Elkton. Lane Weismiller started the winning rally with a sharp single through the hole and Jackson Sowers drew a walk. Rising Sun tried to bunt the runners over but Elkton got a force at third. That brought Spioch to the plate. He bounced a shot between the first baseman and the bag and Sowers scored easily.
"I hadn't really been in a situation like that with a championship game," Spioch said. "This is my second All-Stars. I was thinking I had to get a hit to win and I also thought I was going to get a hit. I said I was and drove in the winning run. Nothing feels better than that." Spioch's hit spoiled a gutsy comeback by Elkton. Trailing 6-1, Elkton scored five times in the bottom of the fifth to tie it. One run scored on a wild pitch and Joshua Warren singled in a run. With two outs, Kaiden Mellott belted a game-tying three-run homer to right-center. While Spioch was the star of stars, many different Rising Sun players contributed to the win. Reserves Seth Morris and Luke Moore each had a big hit. Weismiller collected three hits and got on base in all four plate appearances. AJ Peterson, Rising Sun's third pitcher of the night, tossed 1 1/3 innings to earn the victory. The manager was not surprised Spioch came up big in a crucial moment. "Last year Hayden was drafted by me in the regular season to the Royals," said Tserkis Sr. "He struggled at the beginning but during the year he listened, he was taught well by the coaches, and he became an All-Star. Hew really became an All-Star. We called him our most improved player of the year last year. And he just carried it on into this year. He's just a tremendous athlete. He listens. He doesn't get too big for the situations. He stays calm, cool, and collected and that's what gets him through." Spioch said it was "probably" the best game of his young career. "It's the most important game," he said. "I got 4 1/3 innings and I got that home run that changed it and I only allowed one run. It's probably the biggest accomplishment. I never thought I was going to come in here and do this good." For the first four innings it did not appear as though Rising Sun would need any late-game heroics. Rising Sun took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Jackson Stickney drew a one-out walk against Elkton's hard-throwing starter John Cherwaty. He advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Daniel Tserkis' hard-hit single to center. Tserkis advanced to second on the throw to the plate, moved to third on a throwing error on the play, and scored on a Weismiller single to right. With one out in the bottom of the second, Spioch clubbed a home run to make it 3-0. Elkton got on the board in the top of the third. The first three batters walked and Colin Kilby plated a run when he grounded into a fielder's choice. Spioch was able to retire the next two hitters to minimize the damage. Rising Sun responded with three runs in the home half. Weismiller doubled over the right fielder's head to ignite the uprising. He moved on third on Sowers' groundout to the right side. Morris then singled up the middle to score Weismiller. Spioch and Peterson walked. With two outs, Moore's came through with a two-run single up the middle to make it 6-1. Spioch reached his pitch limit of 85 with one out in the fifth and Elkton went on to forge a deadlock on Mellott's clutch blast. "I told them it was a nothing-nothing game again," Tserkis Sr. said. "And we had our lineup coming up. And anywhere in that lineup, the top of the lineup, the meat of the lineup, [can do damage]. I told them, 'Just get in there. It was a great game Hayden had and we wouldn't want to disappoint him [by] coming up with a loss. So let's go in there. Let's get those bats out and win this for Hayden.' And that's exactly what they did." Spioch prefers to pull the ball, but made an exception on the game-winning hit. "It was down the middle over the left side [of the plate," said the right-handed hitting Spioch. "I'm not one to take that pitch oppo (opposite field). I try to pull it. But I just went with it and I took it down the first base line. And I'm like, 'I went oppo. Hallelujah!'" Said Tserkis Sr.: "I was just praying to God that it got through and I was hoping my guy on second was going around third, and then sending him home. That was the only thing I could think of. All week long I knew watching Elkton right field was the weak spot and we tried our best to get the ball into right field. At that moment, when we needed it, 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth, the ball went to right field right where we wanted it." Rising Sun's players and coaching staff poured out of the dugout to congratulate Sowers and Spioch. "It's the greatest feeling of your life," said Spioch. "You can't do anything better than that. Baseball is my life. I've never had anything better than that. I just felt pure joy to help my team move on to states for the third year in a row." The state tournament will be held in Waldorf beginning Saturday, July 23. Comments are closed.
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