UPDATE: Solanco defeated Lancaster Catholic 3-2 in 10 innings Monday night to advance to the second round of the league tournament. Trailing 6-0 in a must-win game at Lampeter-Strasburg while mired in a two-week hitting slump, things looked bleak for the Solanco baseball team. Suddenly, the Mules' bats came to life. Solanco erupted for six runs in the top of the fourth and tied the game in dramatic fashion. Relief pitcher Dawson Goté turned in a fantastic outing and the Mules scored the eventual winning run in the ninth for a 7-6 triumph over the Pioneers last Wednesday.
Solanco's triumph, coupled with Ephrata's victory over Elizabethtown, put the Mules in the Lancaster-Lebanon League tournament. Playing in front of a big road crowd, Solanco was a bit rattled in the early going, coach Tom Fish said. "Our defense wasn't so strong," said Fish. "We were making some big errors and mental mistakes." Goté came on in the third. He allowed two inherited runners to score but blanked L-S the rest of the way. Fish's message to his team was simple. "We can go away or chip away," he told his squad. Instead of chipping away, the Mules got it all back in one fell swoop. Solanco strung together five straight hits in the fourth and had seven in the inning. Brady Thomas delivered a two-out, two-run single to narrow the gap to 6-5. The Mules tied the game when Mike Worthington stole home. Worthington headed for the plate during the throw back from the catcher to the pitcher and L-S was unable to react in time to get Worthington at the plate. Fish says third base coach Dave Thomas flashed a sign to Worthington telling him to consider making the dash. "We trust Mike in that situation," said Fish. "It was the right time to do it." Goté stymied L-S the rest of the way. The hard thrower had only made one other appearance this season and did not retire a batter in that outing. Against L-S, Goté gave up four walks and recorded nine strikeouts. "The team needed him here and he really came through," Fish said. "I'm so excited for him, to have a night like this was cool to see. He's such a hard worker. I've probably never been happier for a kid I've coached in 12 years." Joe Murray made a crucial defensive play in right field in the bottom of the sixth. With two outs and runners on second and third, Murray made a full-out diving grab to prevent two runs from scoring. "That play literally saved our season," Fish said. Murray was the losing pitcher the day before against Elizabethtown and took it hard, Fish said. "Joe felt like he had let the team down when he gave up a run, but it wasn't Joe's fault we lost the game. We had 10 innings to score a run. I saw him sitting in his car after the [E-town] game looking a little down. I pulled him aside and talked to him and the next day he made a huge play." In the ninth inning, Derek Lavin reached on an error and stole second. L-S had Lavin picked off second, but instead of trying to get back to the bag, Lavin took off for third and slid under the tag. Lavin scored when Tony Osborne reached on an error. Heading into Wednesday's game, Solanco had scored a total of three runs in its three previous games, all of them coming on sacrifice flies. "We hadn't scored a lot of runs the last two weeks to give us confidence we could come back," said Fish. "But somehow we did." Goté retired the Pioneers in order in the bottom of the ninth and ended the game with a strikeout. "Four or five kids came up to me after the game to make sure Ephrata had won and it was exciting to tell them they had and our season was not over," Fish said. "It was quiet on the bus ride home. The kids were exhausted. They did all they could to make sure it was not our last game." On Tuesday, May 10, Solanco suffered an excruciating 1-0 loss to Elizabethtown in 10 innings. Brady Thomas blanked the Bears for nine innings before having to be lifted because pitchers are only permitted to throw nine innings in a day. "That was a tough one," Fish said. "I felt bad for Brady because he was awesome but we just couldn't get him a run." On Monday, May 9, the Mules nipped Garden Spot 1-0. Murray knocked in the only run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth. Colin Ewaka recorded the shutout in just his second start of the season. "Colin pitched great," said Fish. "He got better as the game went along. He gets a lot of groundballs and we didn't make any mistakes behind him." The win over L-S kept the Mules' district playoff hopes alive. Solanco was not able to play Dallastown last week because of postponements but the Mules will play their 20th regular season game Wednesday at West York, a AAA school in a similar situation. Solanco could qualify for districts if it wins Wednesday. Comments are closed.
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