GRANTSVILLE — Mettiki Coal waged a furious comeback in the fifth inning Wednesday, but the tide changed when Landon Yoder took the mound.
Mettiki trailed Northern by five runs after four innings, but it scored four in the fifth to claw within 9-8. With the bases loaded and two outs, Northern turned to its ace to record the club’s most important out of the season.
Yoder needed just one pitch to get out of the jam, he struck out the side in the sixth and Northern scored nine unanswered runs to rout Mettiki Coal, 18-8, in six innings to win Game 2 and sweep the senior rec league championship series on Wednesday at Grantsville Park.
“We found a way to hit,” said Northern manager Jimmy Yoder, who coached Grantsville SAL to a Hot Stove Senior Division title last year and a Junior Division crown in 2022.
“We knew beginning of the year that hitting would be an issue. We kept our composure tonight. We kept our pressure up too.”
Northern (15-4) won the first game of the series 13-5 on Monday in Oakland. Mettiki, with players hailing from Southern Garrett County, finishes 11-6.
Northern took advantage of the short fence at Grantsville Park, which is 285 feet to home plate from the outfield, as Elliott Myers-Shirer belted a two-run homer to right-center field in the first inning and Bailey Turner blasted a solo shot to left in the third.
It also took advantage of 14 Mettiki walks and five errors.
Still, Mettiki had a shot after Northern’s pitching imploded in the fifth, walking in three runs and plunking another for an RBI.
“Proud of the boys to battle back there in the last couple innings and get it tight,” Mettiki manager Doug Nesselrodt said. “Next inning, they just came right back and scored. … We made some errors. We ran out of pitching.”
Yoder induced a comebacker with his first pitch to keep Northern ahead, and his offense scored four in the bottom half of the fifth to pull away. Yoder capped the scoring that frame with a two-out, two-run single up the middle.
Northern added five more in the sixth, and Hunter Beitzel walked it off with an RBI single that forced the run-rule.
“I knew what kids we had,” Jimmy Yoder said. “They got a little energy boost when we put Landon in the game. Because they know, end of the game, that one’s pretty much over. Kept him eligible for (Legion) Friday. That was the biggest thing.”
Turner led Northern going 4 for 5 with a double, an RBI and three runs scored. Beitzel was 2 for 3 with a double and three RBIs, Myers-Shirer finished 2 for 5 with two ribbies and two runs, Yoder drove in four runs, and Gavin Maust went 2 for 5 with a double and three runs scored.
Right-hander Caden Frazee earned the win on the mound, allowing eight runs (seven earned) on five hits in 4 2/3 frames. He struck out four and walked four.
For Mettiki, Peyton Shaffer went 2 for 3 with two RBIs and two runs, Blake Burrell drove in two, and JD Nesselrodt scored twice.
Shaffer was dealt the loss on the mound.
Finishing the season was a feat in and of itself. The Hot Stove Senior Division split with the league midyear after an executive board dispute.
“Me and Jimmy talked, we were going to do our best and finish it for the boys. That’s what it’s all about,” Doug Nesselrodt said.
The seven senior teams formed a rec league and paid umpires out of their own pocket.
The move proved to be the correct one, as, for the second time in 74 years, Hot Stove didn’t name a champion after the Junior Division decided against a postseason this week.
“Our parents made it well-known from the start that they would do anything they could to help,” Yoder said. “I have a list of parents, grandparents, local businesses, everybody willing to chip in if we need anything, all I have to do is pick up the phone.
“That’s why we live where we do. We knew we have good community, but the level of it was a little overwhelming this year.”