TILTON — Schlarman Academy baseball coach Pete O’Brien was hoping to avoid Déjá Vu on Tuesday.
The Hilltoppers went into their crosstown rivalry game with Danville with wins in three of their last four games but was hoping to not totally underestimate the Vikings and avoid things from last year’s game.
In last year’s game, Schlarman took a 8-1 lead, but only won 12-10 in eight innings.
“We didn’t underestimate them because we had a strong team last year and they had a bit of bad luck entering that game,” O’Brien said. “I told them to not let things happen like last year, but then that is what happened.”
But unlike last year, it was the Vikings who would go out to a big lead — going up 7-2 after the first two innings. But the Hilltoppers were up for the challenge and would win another wild game with Danville, 13-12, in eight innings.
Schlarman was down 12-11 in the eighth before Miles Crosby tied the game on a double. Crosby would try to steal third and after the throw to third went into left field, he would go home with the winning run.
“Leading up to that was an emotional moment for me because I felt I wasn’t playing up to my potential,” Crosby said. “At the end of that bat, I cleared my head because I got the run in. I saw their catcher threw the ball and I decided to run around and he overthrew it and I was able to get the win for my team. My teammates kept me up when I was emotional and I got my head straight.”
“I knew we were down to two strikes and I knew they would throw off-speed, so I told Miles to get into motion and I saw the catcher throw the ball,” O’Brien said. “I knew that it would be overthrown and I told Miles to get up and go home and he hustled all the way. We like to be aggressive and take advantage of that because we have speed.”
The game started with the Vikings taking advantage of four walks in the first inning to take a 4-0 lead before the Hilltoppers got two back on an RBI single by Jerrius Atkinson and an sacrifice fly by Crosby.
Danville would score on an error, a single by Liam Enyeart and an double by Alex McQuown in the second for the 7-2 lead.
“Danville worked some good counts. We had some walks and some errors and we were down big and we had to battle back,” O’Brien said. “We were without our shortstop and second baseman, so we had different people in different positions. I thought it would be different, but Danville put up a fight just like they did last year. They come to play when it is the crosstown rivalry.”
The Hilltoppers would get back into the game in the bottom of the third when with the bases loaded, Marc Villaester got a RBI single, Atkinson would score, Peyton Kuemmerle drove in two runs and Kotcher drove in Kuemmerle to tie things up at 7-7.
McQuown had a RBI double and Alex Perez would drive in a run with a bases-loaded walk for an 9-7 Danville lead in the fourth, but Schlarman struck in the bottom of the inning when Atkinson had an RBI double, Princeton Rush scored on an error and Atkinson scored on an Danville error to take a 10-9 lead.
The fifth inning was scoreless, but a wild pitch in the sixth brought in Ulexis Williams to tie the game and Perez would steal home to give the Vikings an 11-10 lead.
“I have been around the game a long time and the pitcher wasn’t paying attention to him,” Danville coach Michael Dokey said about Perez’s steal.” I told him when I tell you to go, go and he kept him off-balanced and that was a case of our speed keeping them off balance.”
Kummerle brought in Villaester to tie the game up at 11-11 in the sixth and after a scoreless seventh, the game went to extra innings.
The eighth started with Perez getting hit by a pitch and Ace Sumila getting a walk before Jake Garrison got an single that would score Sumila for the lead.
While the Vikings took advantage of certain situations, it was the advantages that they didn’t take that stuck with Dokey.
“We had every chance in the world and we had the bases loaded four times and their pitchers threw strikes and challenged us,” Dokey said. “I don’t know if we backed down or we were intimidated but they wanted the game more than us. They didn’t want to give up its first win to a team that’s 0-10 and they were coming off a big win last night.
“We are getting better, but we did make some basic fundamental mistakes. They have speed and when you have speed, it causes havoc and they put pressure on the defense.”
McQuown had two hits and three RBIs for the Vikings, while losing pitcher Liam Enyeart had two RBIs, Garrison and Tate McLoughlin each had two hits and one RBI, Perez, Williams and Brody Boyd each had one RBI. Enyeart had four strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings after taking over for McQuown, who had four strikeouts in three innings.
Dokey said his top rotation have to get a little tougher in the future at the plate and at the mound.
“They have to have the killer instinct. Alex tries to hit the five-run home run and it was tempting because he’s a lefty and there’s a short porch and he thought he had one, but he didn’t. We have to keep hitting and in time they will get better and better and go through it.
“We intentionally walk the bases loaded and their guy (Villaester) gets a checked swing single that scores a run, but if we don’t walk or hit a batter, we wouldn’t be in that situation. Liam and Alex have to eliminate that. If you walk or hit a guy in the leadoff position, they are going to most likely score, especially with a young team like us.”
Atkinson had three hits and two RBIs, while Kummerle had two hits and three RBIs, Crosby had two RBIs and Villaester and Kotcher each had one RBI. Atkinson would pitch for the first time this season in the sixth inning and was able to get the win with eight strikeouts. Kotcher had three strikeouts in two innings and Rush came in the third and had four strikeouts in three innings.
“We wanted to win the game more and it showed a lot that we didn’t give up,” Atkinson said. “It got down in the dugout, but we got the energy back and we started scoring. It was my first time pitching in a while. I wish I would have done better, but we got the win and that’s all that matters.”
“He (Atkinson) missed the first couple of games in the season. When he came back, he was still having trouble with his knee and he didn’t want to pitch until he felt comfortable,” O’Brien said. “About halfway through the game, he said ‘Coach I can pitch. I don’t know if I can throw strikes, but my arm is ready of you need it.’ When he said that, we were going to take advantage of that.”
After an 0-2 start, the Hilltoppers are 4-3 and believe that they are finding their spots even though they are still down a few players.
“I feel that our team is coming into play here,” Crosby said. “I know we are a lot better than last year. We are all hitting the ball better and we are putting in the work to do so.”
“It has just been us getting back on the field,” Atkinson said. “There are guys on the team who don’t play baseball for a lifetime and it is the first time they played and they just have to show up and get more reps. They have been playing good, but we just have to get more.”
“We were missing Jerrius, who is strong on offense and defense for us,” O’Brien said. “We started flat and lost to teams that we could have beat, but they just outplayed us and didn’t make the plays we needed to. But we have been able to turn it around. We started to hit the ball well and have good approaches at the plate. We don’t have to hit a home run, we just have to keep moving guys up.”
The Hilltoppers will next play Salt Fork on Monday.
For the Vikings, they dropped to 0-12 on Tuesday and Dokey wanted more than just a moral victory.
“I wanted this win. I have played for Danville and it is always a great rivalry game,” Dokey said. “The umpire told me that this is a good confidence builder, but this was a game that we should have had. We should have blew it out early but we didn’t take advantage of the opportunity.”
Danville made up for that and then some on Wednesday. The Vikings visited Peoria and were able to pick up their first wins of the season in a sweep of a doubleheader by identical 16-2 scores.
In the first game, Sumila had two hits and two RBIs, while Garrison had two hits and an RBI, Boyd and McLoughlin each had one RBI and Boyd had senve strikeouts and gave up three hits on the mound.
McQuown had three hits and two RBIs in the second game, while Garrison had two RBIs and Williams had one RBI. McLoughlin had five strikeouts on the mound. The Vikings are now 2-12 and will face Urbana on Friday.