CARBONDALE — All you could say to yourself after a game like Monday night was, “It happened again.”
For the second straight game, the Teutopolis baseball team mustered a rally in the bottom of the seventh. And for the second straight game, the Teutopolis baseball team won the game.
Monday’s game against DuQuoin at Abe Martin Field on the campus of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale was a bit sweeter, though.
This time, the win for T-Town meant a trip back to the state tournament for the first time since 2019.
“This is just incredible,” said senior Carter Hoene with tears in his eyes after his team’s 6-5 come-from-behind win. “You can finally feel [the hard work] being paid off.”
The Shoes were down 5-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth and only nine outs remaining.
Theoretically, that wouldn’t be much time.
To this team, it almost seemed like this was just where they wanted to be.
“This team never gives up and it shows,” junior Jason Kreke said. “All the hard work put in this winter, even during basketball season, there are kids out there putting the work in. That’s what got us here.”
Gavin Addis started the bottom of the fifth with a walk.
Aidan Niemerg and Dawson Hoene then hit back-to-back singles.
T-Town’s first run of the game came after Davin Worman grounded out to short, allowing Teagan Pals — who courtesy ran for Addis — to score.
Mick Niebrugge singled after that, scoring Niemerg.
Worman followed, scoring a run after an error by the Indians’ second baseman to shave the lead to two runs.
Head coach Justin Fleener said the tide shifted, for good, in the sixth inning, though.
“You could kind of feel that little spark,” Fleener said.
Addis struck out Jayden Anders and Eli Furlow to start the top of the sixth.
The junior then yielded a walk to Dedrick Melvin before Cy Craft lined out to senior Henry Thompson, manning second.
Melvin, the DuQuoin starter, didn’t allow much damage in the bottom half of the inning.
He got Carter Hoene to fly out to right to start the frame.
Melvin then hit Thompson before Addis singled after lining a ball off the second baseman’s glove. He then got Niemerg to fly out to right and Dawson Hoene to ground out to first.
Though nothing came of the inning, the hit for Addis was an important one for him.
The junior has been struggling in the postseason; he was 1-for-9 until he hit his single.
“When you can barrel a ball up and you’re struggling and hit it hard somewhere, that starts to give you more confidence,” Fleener said.
Where he wasn’t struggling was on the mound.
Addis relieved Niemerg in the fourth inning and allowed two hits, zero earned runs and one walk to seven strikeouts.
The big-time moment never seems to bother Addis, though.
During the basketball season, he made the tying shot to send T-Town to overtime in the sectional semifinals.
Fleener is an assistant coach on the basketball team.
“Gavin has been in these situations,” he said.
Following the bottom of the sixth, Addis struck out Jade DeMarie and Max Zimmerman in the top of the seventh before getting Luke Bauman to ground out to third.
That set up another roller-coaster end-of-game situation for the Shoes.
Worman started the bottom of the seventh by getting hit by a pitch.
Niebrugge doubled, allowing Worman to slide head-first into home plate.
Kreke then reached first after the center fielder dropped the ball.
With runners on first and third and no outs, Pals got the call to pinch-hit for Caleb Deters, who initially replaced third baseman Austin Borries. Borries came out of the game in the second inning after stealing third base.
“He got a read and thought he could take third base,” Fleener said. “We have a signal and if you think you can take [the base], maybe we can jump a ball or maybe they can throw it into left. He forced a bad throw, but he did something to his kneecap.”
Deters replaced Borries in the fourth.
He ended up going 0-for-2 before Pals got the nod.
The sophomore made the most of what was his third at-bat, driving the first pitch he saw to left-center field. The center fielder misplayed the ball, allowing courtesy runner Bryce Niebrugge and Kreke to score.
“I’ve never dreamt of this. I didn’t think I’d get the opportunity,” Pals said. “Third time’s the charm.”
Pals said he was nervous heading into his plate appearance.
So nervous to where he said he didn’t even know what bat to pick.
The one he selected turned out to be the right choice.
“You always got to be ready,” Pals said. “It’s going to be your chance sometime.”
Kreke, typically doesn’t run the bases very often as the catcher.
He was moving once he saw the ball get away from the outfielder.
“I usually don’t run the bases, but I knew the ball was driven into deep left-center and I got a pretty good read on it and I ended up going first to home,” Kreke said.
Fleener was moving his arm at a rapid degree as he was sending Kreke home.
He laughed that he was trying to beat him down the line, too. These games make the veteran coach feel younger.
“It’s 9:30 and I’m still up. I was beating Jason home,” Fleener joked.
Pals’ at-bat was just another example of this team responding to the situation.
After all, they’ve done it all year.
“Those young men respond,” Fleener said. “I try to put players in positions that they’re going to have success. Sometimes, they’re not right, but I try to put the young men that we have in a position where they can have some success. We’re fortunate that it happened in that last inning.”
Fleener said that Pals had been having good at-bats during practice.
Little did Pals know, that people were watching him.
He earned this moment.
“He’s been having very good at-bats in practice and I thought, ‘Let’s give it a whirl,'” Fleener said.
Dawson Hoene and Borries each had one hit to go along with the one-hit games from Pals and Addis.
Niemerg joined Niebrugge with two hits.
Niemerg is the team’s nine-hole hitter in the batting order, yet puts up some of the toughest battles when he’s in the box.
“They don’t expect much out of the nine-hole, so I go up there and I just do my best to make the pitcher work and get the ball in play, make the defense work and get on base,” Niemerg said. “I’m having a good postseason and I’m hoping to keep that up.”
Niemerg also wasn’t too shabby on the bump. He threw 3 2/3 innings and allowed four hits, two unearned runs and one walk to two strikeouts.
Melvin allowed eight hits, six runs (five earned) and three walks to four strikeouts in six innings for the Indians.
“He was dominating us,” Fleener said. “[His off-speed] was hard to pick up.”
Kreke added, “He started landing his slider in the zone and that’s what got us off-balance.”
T-Town will play Sterling (Newman Central Catholic) on Friday at 7 p.m. in the second state semifinal game. The game is at Illinois Field on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.