Knights rally to 5-3 baseball victory over Civic Memorial
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BETHALTO – Civic Memorial baseball coach Gary Bruening didn't think his coaching career would come to an end on a game-ending double play.
Especially the way the double play came about.
Brandon Hampton, who had pitched brilliantly until the top of the seventh, was up with one out and two on in the bottom of the seventh, the Eagles trailing 5-3 to Triad.
Hampton got ahold of a Gavin Gibbs offering and drove it down near the right-field line.
Instead of what could have been a game-tying extra-base hit, Mack Langdon speared Hampton's drive and doubled Caden Clark off first to bring the game to an end and eliminated the Eagles as the Knights rallied from 3-0 down to take a 5-3 win in Monday's opening-round IHSA Class 3A Highland Regional. The Knights now 11-23, advance into Wednesday's semifinal game against Jersey at Highland's Glik Park; that game begins at 7 p.m. The Eagles were eliminated at 18-16-1.
“They made the plays, obviously, and we didn't,” Bruening, who will be retiring as Eagles coach, said. “I think we gave them three unearned runs; the second baseman (John McGee) took a run away from us early, the first baseman took away at least one, maybe two, away there with the No. 2 and 3 hitters (Jaxsen Helmkamp and Corey Price) coming up.”
The Eagles had grabbed a 3-0 lead with a run in the first and two more in the third off Knight starting pitcher Nick Beeler; when Gavin Gibbs came on to pitch in the fourth, it threw CM off-stride. “Their kid who came in (Gibbs) who came in shut us down; he had some off-speed stuff that kept us off-balance, he threw the ball well against us.”
Hampton had shut the Knights down well, giving up just two hits in the first five innings for the Eagles. “He (Hampton) did a nice job,” said Knight coach Jesse Bugger. “He was kind of cruising along, mixing his pitches well and we were swinging over the top of a lot of balls. We really weren't putting much together.”
The Eagles jumped ahead early when Hampton led off by drawing a walk and was sacrificed to second by Helmkamp. Price then lifted a fly ball to right where the ball was caught and Hampton tagged and went to third. When the relay throw was fumbled, however, Hampton headed home and scored to put CM ahead 1-0.
Clark singled with one out in the bottom of the third and went to third when Hampton doubled to right-center. Helmkamp then drove Clark home with a sacrifice fly to center and Hampton scored when he was doubled in by Price to give CM a 3-0 lead. And with Hampton pitching well, the Eagles seemed to be in control of things.
Triad pulled a run back in the sixth when Kevin Smith drove home McGee with the bases loaded to 3-1, then pulled to 3-2 down in the seventh when Merrick Fulton tripled in Zach Kraable; Hampton was replaced on the mound by John Whitworth, with Hampton moving to center in Whitworth's place. McGee singled in Kraable to tie the game at 3-3, with Cole Witzig then reaching first on a fielder's choice on an attempted double play that went awry.
Langdon struck out for the second out, but Beeler and Smtih had back-to-back RBI singles to put the Knights up 5-3. Konnor Lowen and Clark reached base with one out in the bottom of the seventh to bring up Hampton, representing the potential game-winning run, but Hampton's drive down the line in right became the game-ending double play.
Hampton was 1-for-3 with two runs scored and Clark was 2-for-3 with a run scored; Hampton threw 6.1 innings and struck out eight while giving up three runs on eight hits.
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