OAKLAND — One team entered Saturday’s do-or-die playoff game trending up and the other down.
Those trends continued, as third-seeded Northern extended its season with a comprehensive 8-2 victory over county rival and second-seeded Southern in a Class 1A West Region I semifinal game.
The triumph was Northern’s sixth in a row. The defeat was Southern’s fifth straight to end the year.
“That’s probably the best game we’ve played all year,” Northern head coach Phil Carr said. “I’ve been saying all year, we want to be playing good at the end, and we’ve won six in a row here.”
Many expected the roles to be reversed two weeks ago when Northern (11-7) sat at 5-7 and Southern (11-9) was soaring high at 11-4 following a stretch of four walk-off wins in five games.
However, the Rams continued to make the same mistakes they made down the stretch Saturday, committing five errors and walking five more to hand Northern six unearned runs.
On the back of a complete-game gem thrown by Luke Ross, clean defense and the station-to-station baseball Carr-coached teams have become accustomed to, the Huskies played winning postseason baseball.
The young Rams, in Hayden McLaughlin’s first season at the helm, did not.
“Didn’t do what we had to do from square one,” he said. “Had five errors. Struck out a bunch. Can’t do that in playoff games, especially against a good team. They’ll take advantage of that and today they did.
“Just didn’t seem to do the small things right that’ll eventually lead to the big things. Just seems like that’s been our style of ball these past five games. Not really being ourselves and not doing what we have to do to compete and win.”
Ross earned the victory on the bump after allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits with 10 strikeouts and a walk in seven innings of work.
The right-hander’s defense made just one error, a dropped fly ball in the sixth that led to Southern’s final run after Jack Healy’s RBI single, but it proved to be a moot point with Northern leading 8-1.
“Luke was very good today,” Carr said. “He was sharp. He got outs early in the count, and our defense was good.”
That defense showed noticeable improvement with the return of Landon Yoder at second base, who was making his second start of the year coming back from an injury.
Southern right-hander Jared Haskiell didn’t get the same support behind him.
A throwing error by the catcher in the first inning and one in the second frame when the first baseman’s foot came off the bag — both with two outs — accounted for Northern’s first two runs.
Jacob Chambers’ RBI single in the third was Haskiell’s lone earned run.
And in the fourth inning, a dropped fly ball with one out sparked a three-run frame that gave Northern a 6-1 lead. Wally Brands recorded an RBI single, Cole Folk had a sacrifice fly and the other tally crossed home plate on a wild pitch.
While Southern made mistakes in the field, Northern did well to work counts and put the ball in play to put the tension back on the Rams.
“I said before the game we had to put pressure on them,” Carr said. “We had baserunners on every inning. … When they have to pitch with guys on, they have to make plays with guys on, the pressure rises. That hurt them today.”
Haskiell exited after the fifth inning after 107 pitches. The right-handed junior surrendered six runs (one earned) on four hits with nine strikeouts and five walks in five frames.
Lefty Cade Leader tossed the final two innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits. He struck out one and walked nobody.
Northern began the sixth inning with three straight singles, the latter an RBI knock by Liam Stewart.
A second run scored in the frame after Southern elected to throw down on a first-and-third play. While Reece Tasker threw the runner out at second, Ross stole home for an 8-1 Northern lead.
Brands and Kyle Broadwater both had multi-hit days for the Huskies. Ross hit safely just once but worked three free passes, scored three times and stole three bases.
Haskiell and Healy both singled twice each for Southern. Tasker had an RBI single with two outs in the first inning for the Rams’ first run.
While the season didn’t end how Southern envisioned, it had plenty of highs, most notable were extra-inning wins over Keyser, 5-4, and Frankfort, 11-10, in the span of three days.
“I’m just overall so proud of the group and the ride we went on,” McLaughlin said. “They gave us some exciting times and got the community buzzing a little bit, and there’s going to be more to come from Southern baseball.”
Northern now finds itself in a similar situation to last year, the region championship against a favored Allegany (19-2).
“We got back where we wanted to be, and that’s playing in a region championship, but we sure made it hard on ourself,” Carr said. “People had us buried in the middle of the season when we went on that losing streak and we were under .500, and I wasn’t too sure myself if we were going to dig ourselves out.
“But we did a nice job to get ourselves back and get the respect back that we deserve.”
Last year, the Huskies upset the Campers, 6-5, in nine innings at that stage en route to a state semifinal appearance.