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Panthers happy with detour
Deja vu was not what Neosho County Community College head coach Steve Murry had in mind.
Neosho County second baseman Brady Ellis scored what held up as the series-winning run in the third game of a best-of-three first-round Region VI Tournament playoff series Tuesday afternoon. The game was moved from Chanute to Fort Scott's Lions Field when the Panthers' home field couldn't recover from Monday's rain.
The Panthers won this game 4-3 and took the series two games to one over Hutchinson, winning when Ellis tagged up and scored after no one covered home plate after Blue Dragon first baseman Johnathan Yervy caught a ball in foul ground near the third-base dugout in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Neosho County head coach Steve Murry said that the Panthers encountered a very similar situation earlier in the season.
"It's a tough foul ball for them to catch and everybody's going away from home plate," Murry said. "It happened to us earlier this year and I told the same exact kid, 'Go!' and he didn't go then. Today, he didn't even hesitate. He got back to tag third and busted it and beat 'em there. It's a tough way to lose a ball game for Hutch."
Ellis led off the inning with a double to center, then got to third on Jason Enyart's sacrifice bunt. Tyler Knight popped up ad the ball drifted foul in front of Neosho County's dug out.
The Dragons' catcher and pitcher had also rushed toward the ball and their third baseman forgot to go cover home plate. Ellis beat the third baseman in a sprint down the line.
Hutch tried to appeal, claiming Ellis had left third too soon but the third-base umpire said he didn't leave until the ball was caught.
Neosho County, 32-20, will play Butler, 37-13, in the Region VI quarterfinal round Friday at 6 in Wichita. Butler swept Coffeyvlle in its first-round series.
Hutchinson, 30-25, scored first. Yerby doubled with two out in the top of the first and Scott Heithshusen knocked him in with a single.
Heithshusen was acting as his own designated hitter -- an NCAA rule some junior college teams also take advantage of, which allows the pitcher to continue batting even if he is removed as a pitcher -- and kept the Panthers from hitting in the first three innings outside of Enyart's leadoff double in the first.
The Dragons appeared to give Heithshusen some insurance in the top of the fourth when Logan Hoch -- himself a top-notch pitcher but playing left field in this game -- belted a two-run homer to center field with two out, scoring himself and Clint Bieberle, who had reached on an error to lead off the inning.
The Panthers tied it in the bottom of the fourth with their own display of power. Jake Hoover hit a solo shot with one out. Tyler Appelhans was hit by a pitch in front of Brandon Sears' two-run homer that tied the score at 3-3.
Both teams changed pitcher after that inning. But the Panthers went to Brent Lemaster, whom Murray said was probably his best pitcher on the season.
Lemaster allowed three hits and two walks while striking out nine over the final five innings. He was able to get out of some serious trouble in the top of the seventh.
Lemaster had struck out the first two batters of the inning. But Yerby singled with two out and LaGree doubled to center.
Murry then told Lemaster to intentionally walk Heithshusen to load the bases. But Lemaster struck out Scott Hoover on a 3-2 pitch.
"The biggest thing was that we didn't want to start him because we felt like we could get more in relief," Murry said. "He picked up the save in game one. We didn't use him in game two and we knew we had him as long as we needed him in game three. (Starter) Timmy Lysaught did an okay job getting us to Brent and Brent threw really well."
Lance Dougherty took the loss for Hutch, although the soft-throwing lefty had pitched well enough to win it himself. He allowed only two hits in his five innings, both to Ellis, didn't walk a batter and struck out two. Starter Heithshusen allowed three hits and hit two batters. He walked none and struck out four.
Lysaught allowed one earned run on seven hits and two walks over the first four innings for Neosho County. He struck out one.
Ellis was the only Panther with two hits. Yerby, Bieberle and Michael Moriky had two hits each for Hutch.
Game Three
Hutchinson...... 100 200 000 -- 3 10 1
Neosho County... 000 300 01x -- 4 5 1
WP -- Lamaster. LP -- Dougherty.
HR -- Hutchinson: Logan Hoch (4th inn., one on, none out). Neosho County: Jake Hoover (4th inn., none on, one out), Sears (4th inn., one on, one out).