AKRON - Whitko's varsity baseball team won an unconventional game Saturday at Tippecanoe Valley High School.
In first-round action of Class 3A Sectional 21 against West Noble, the Wildcats overcame a 4-2 deficit with six runs in the bottom of the sixth, then allowed the Chargers to score three in the top of the seventh before prevailing 8-7."Especially for our seniors, what a great win," Whitko coach Erik Hisner said of his team, which last won a sectional game 8-7 over Peru in 2005. "We haven't won a sectional game in at least four or five years. So this is a huge boost for our program, and the kids know that. Now we're starting to get that mentality of showing up and expecting to win."
Making the win even odder was the fact that prior to the six-run sixth, Whitko had just two hits against West Noble senior pitcher Kyle Grimm. However, those two hits, which came off the bats of juniors Trevor Sleighter and Tyler Linn, sailed over the center field fence.
"We had two home runs as a team coming in," Hisner said. "So, we weren't expecting that, but those kids have been swinging well in practice. I'm not completely surprised by it."
On an overcast day, with the wind blowing out, West Noble coach Travis Steele wasn't completely surprised by the dingers either.
"When the wind's blowing out, and it's a fairly short field to center, you put the ball in play, things are going to happen," he said.
And if someone had told you Whitko would win after seeing the beginning of the first inning, you may have figured that person was kidding.
After opening the game with a flyout, West Noble hit a single, then a double which led Hisner to intentionally walk Grimm, loading the bases for junior Nathan Cosner, who hit a two-RBI double, leaving him at second and Grimm at third with one out.
Following a mound visit, Whitko junior pitcher Kurt Boggs got the next two outs, leaving the deficit at just 2-0.
Sleighter posted Whitko's first home run in the bottom of the first, but West Noble got it started again in the second with junior Mitchell Knepper ripping a triple to start things off.
The lead-off hit caused Hisner to take out Boggs, and move senior James Stoddard from first base to the pitching mound.
In that role, Stoddard struck out freshman Korey Kendall, had senior Brad Simmons pop out to Boggs, who was moved to catcher, then got a ground-ball out from sophomore Ted Fulk, ending the threat.
"We had chances to really break the game open early," Steele said. "We scored two in the first inning, and had runners at second and third with one out, but couldn't push any more across. Then we had a lead-off triple in the second, and couldn't score him. We had our chances."
Stoddard went on to pitch into the sixth inning, where West Noble got two runs before Hisner took him out with two outs.
"Kurt's been throwing well," Hisner said of his starting pitcher. "He's been our most consistent arm all year. I have to give James a lot of credit. He came in and slammed the door, at least twice maybe three times, and kept us in it. If they push it to four, five or six runs, it changes things a lot. Stoddard did a great job of keeping us in the game."
After giving up the two runs in the sixth inning, senior Ryan Busz entered the game, but didn't have to record an out as Boggs gunned down West Noble junior pinch runner Pete Dhonau as he attempted to steal second base.
Holding a 4-2 lead, Grimm ran out of gas, allowing senior Nick Cox to lead the sixth off with a single, then walking sophomore Nathan Sherrard.
"(Cox) did a good job of hitting with two strikes," Steele said of Whitko's No. 9 hitter. "He led off the inning with a two-strike hit, then we walked a guy and another one of their guys had an 0-2 count. (Grimm) missed on the 0-2 pitch, and they took advantage of it."
The man that took advantage of that pitch was sophomore Alex Winger, who ripped the pitch between first and second base, scoring Cox, and cutting the lead to 4-3.
With runners at second and third, Sleighter struck again, pounding a 3-1 pitch to center field for a two-run double, notching his second and third RBIs of the game, and putting his team in front 5-4.
"Nick Cox got us going, and Trevor Sleighter had the big hit," Hisner said. "He's been doing that all year for us."
At that point, it was evident that Grimm had run out of gas, but Steele stayed with his ace, who got his first out of the inning following the Sleighter double.
"We knew if we got his pitch count up, and deep into the game, his velocity would drop off a little bit," Hisner said. "Which it did."
"I never felt like we were out of it," he added. "We were having good at-bats, and I figured, eventually, we'd get to him. He's a tough pitcher."
Staying with Grimm, Linn then drew a walk, which was followed by an RBI-groundout by Boggs, which upped the lead to 6-4.
Wildcats senior Cole Mishler then joined the hitting parade with a single, followed by an RBI-single by Busz that spelled the end of Grimm's day with the score at 8-4.
On top by four runs, it seemed like Whitko would coast to the win, but that wasn't the case.
"It's like I told the kids, 'You never know which run is going to win it for you, or beat you.'," Hisner said.
After Busz walked West Noble's first batter of the seventh, then gave up a single to Cosner, Hisner put Mishler in to pitch, but that didn't mean things were going to go smoothly.
Mishler's first batter reached via an error, which loaded the bases with no outs.
Unfortunately for West Noble, it's first out came on a three-RBI double by Rupright, who overran second base, and was picked off.
With no runners on base, Mishler induced a groundball from Knepper, but the tying run reached first when Kendall hit a single.
However, the game was put away when senior Brad Simmons lined out to third base, allowing the Wildcats to exhale.
"We live to fight another day," Hisner said. "Each game we have good at-bats in lets the kids know we can win even more. I told them, 'One game at a time. Anything can happen.'"
Whitko is scheduled to play NorthWood today at 7:30 p.m., with the winner moving on to Tuesday's 6 p.m. championship game.
NorthWood advanced to the semifinals by defeating Lakeland 10-2 in Saturday's second game.
