Bulldogs hitting their stride with a perfect week
Two weeks ago the Harrisburg baseball team was still having trouble getting over the hump having flirted with the .500 mark, but only making it over just once since the first game of the season before falling back with a loss to Carterville, but since then the Bulldogs have found their bite winning seven in a row including three last week with two coming by last inning rallies.
“We’ve been pretty good at making late inning rallies lately,” said Harrisburg coach Jay Thompson. “Right now we’re playing with a lot of confidence. They don’t give up. Our pitching is not dominant, but we throw strikes and we mix our pitches. The bigger part of our recent success is that we’ve started to play really good defense. I’m very happy with the way we’re playing.”
Harrisburg (16-9) heads into the final two weeks of the regular season with momentum to get a favorable Regional seed, which seemed like a pipe dream just three weeks ago. This week, weather permitting, the Bulldogs have three games scheduled starting with two games at home against Fairfield (9-8) Monday and Pinckneyville (11-11) Friday at 4:30 p.m. and ending with a road game against Benton (5-17) Saturday at 11 a.m.
During the first five weeks of the season Harrisburg lost its first three conference games and split its next two to be eliminated from winning the title, but has since won its last three to even its final record to 4-4 to sit currently in fourth place behind Murphysboro (4-2, 9-12 overall), Carterville (5-3, 13-8), and Massac County (4-3, 13-3). Ironically, Harrisburg’s 16 wins are the best of all the Ohio Division teams.
During the first four weeks the longest winning streak was two games, but starting with a road win over Hamilton County to end week four Harrisburg has won 11 of its last 13 games with the two losses being 3-2 to Murphysboro and a 7-4 late inning loss to Carterville.
The Bulldogs started last week on a four-game winning streak after beating Carmi-White County on the road, 17-1, avenging Murphysboro at home, 12-3, and beating Vandalia twice, 18-2 and 9-2, in a road doubleheader last Saturday.
This week began with a 9-4 road win at conference foe Herrin (8-12, 1-6 Ohio) behind the complete game pitching of Owen Rann (2-4). The senior right-hander pitched seven innings giving up three earned runs on four hits and four walks with nine strikeouts. The Bulldogs scored five runs in the top of the seventh to break a 4-4 tie.
“Rann was real solid for us,” Thompson said. “Their starting pitcher did a good job against us.”
Two leadoff errors gave the Tigers the early lead with a run in the bottom of the first and the game remained 1-0 until the top fourth when the Bulldogs, who had been held to just a one-out double by Felix Maynard in the second and a two-out error on a ground ball by Aiden Hankins in the third, exploded for four runs.
Rann got the rally started on a ground ball to center field. After Reed Rider, who replaced Rann as a courtesy runner, the senior stole second before Maynard popped out to short center field.
Second baseman Ian Crabb was walked to put runners at first and second bringing Xander Robinson to the plate, who was hitting .213 at that time, and the senior left-fielder cranked Chance Estes’ first pitch over the wall in left field for his first career home run.
Burke Wilson was then walked and after he was bunted to second, the sophomore first baseman scored on a two-out ground ball to center by Dax Randolph to take a 4-1 lead.
Herrin tied the game with three runs in the bottom of the fifth on two sacrifice flies following a leadoff walk and single and by beating out a hard line drive to second to score the third run.
After Rann set down the side in order in the bottom of the sixth on 10 pitches, the Bulldogs rallied in the top of the seventh starting with a leadoff double by Randolph.
Randolph was then bunted to third by Hankins bringing Brendan Bergan, who had popped out to right to end the first, caught looking to end the third with a runner at first, and grounded out to third to open the fifth, to the plate.
The senior center fielder fell behind 1-2 before hitting a seeing-eye ground ball to left field to drive in Randolph with the game-winning run. Bergan advanced to second when Rider joined him on base after Rann was hit by a pitch. Maynard cranked his second double of the game to clear the bases and up the lead to 7-4.
One out later with Maynard at third after a wild pitch, Robinson hit his second career triple and first of the season to drive him home. Robinson then scored the final run on a ground ball to right by Wilson.
“Xander came up big for us,” Thompson said. “He’s has had several good games lately and is playing good defense.”
Rann pitched around a two-out walk in the bottom of the frame to seal the win. Robinson finished with two hits in three at-bats with four RBIs with Maynard going 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Randolph also going to 2-for-4 with one RBI.
Following a rain out at Carbondale, the Bulldogs hosted a hot Marion Wildcats team that had its 10-game winning streak snapped two days before by Goreville. Harrisburg beat the Wildcats, 8-3, to up their record at “The Jay” to 8-3.
Harrisburg rudely greeted freshman right-hander Brayden Bethel, who was making second career start, for seven runs on nine hits.
The Bulldogs took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a two-out rally started by Bergan reaching base on a line drive to left and Rann following with a line drive single to center to put runners at second and third following the throw to third.
Maynard continued his productive week by beating out a ground to third to plate Bergan and Rann followed him across the plate on an error by the third baseman. Maynard finished with three hits in four at-bats with two RBIs and a run scored.
“We knew Maynard could hit and he’s been hot (with 14 hits in his last 27 at-bats),” Thompson said. “He’s also a good, solid catcher.”
Brody Nyberg, who missed nine games with an injury before making a relief appearance in the second game against Vandalia, got the start for the first time since April 11 and after setting down the side in order in the first walked the first two batters in the second and following a sacrifice bunt gave up a run on a ground out to second.
“Nyberg is coming off some soreness, so the plan was to take him out after the first two innings as we work him back into the rotation,” Thompson said.
The Bulldogs upped its lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the second on a two-out single by Hankins following a walk and an error with one out and a fielder’s choice ground out to second.
Briar Butler (1-0) took over the pitching duties in the third and gave up two runs on a ground out to second followed by a sacrifice fly to tie the score after the senior opened giving up a walk and a single.
Harrisburg put the game away with four runs in the bottom of the fourth. After Maddux Smothers led off with a single and Randolph drew a walk, one out later Bergan reached on a dropped third strike that got away from the catcher allowing Smothers to score the winning run and Randolph advancing to third.
With two out Maynard drove in Randolph on a line drive single to left and Rider, who returned to starting lineup for the first time since breaking his finger on May 14 as the designated hitter, tripled into center field to score Bergan and Maynard to up the lead to 7-3.
After Butler set down the side in order in the fifth, Harrisburg scored its final run on a two-out single by Rann to score Smothers, who had reached base on a one-out ground ball single to left.
Butler (1-0) pitched around a leadoff walk and single in the sixth and a one-out single in the seventh to pick up his first win of the season in his fifth relief outing of the season.
“Briar was the story of the day,” Thompson said. “That was his longest outing and he shut down a really good team.”
The Bulldogs finished the week at Ohio Division foe Massac County and took some revenge for an earlier 7-2 loss at home with a 7-3 extra innings win behind the pitching of Crabb and Smothers and the hitting of Randolph, Bergan, Rann, Rider and Smothers, who finished with two hits each. Bergan and Rann had two RBIs each.
Crabb pitched the first seven innings giving up three unearned runs on four hits and a walk with four strikeouts. Massac led 1-0 after the fourth inning and Harrisburg tied the game in the firth on a sacrifice line drive by Randolph.
“Crabb seems to get a little bit better every time out,” Thompson said.
Massac regained the lead with two runs in the fifth on an error. Harrisburg cut the lead to one on a two-out Smothers line drive single to right and tied the score in the top of the seventh on a one-out sacrifice fly by Hankins after Ladan Phelps was hit to open the inning.
Smothers pitched around a leadoff single and an intentional walk in the eighth. Crabb led off the top of the ninth getting hit on a 3-2 pitch. Randolph followed with pop fly single over the second baseman.
After a wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third, Hankins singled to right with Crabb holding at third and Randolph being tagged out at second leaving runners at the corners with one out. Two pitches later Hankins stole second.
Bergan won the game by clearing the bases with line drive single to center and Rann followed with his team leading fifth home run of the season and fourth in his last seven games.
“Rann has turned into a really good hitter,” Thompson said. “Brendan got a one-out, two RBI hit to put us up and was at the plate when the winning run scored against Marion and drove in the winning run against Herrin.”
Bergan came into last week on a four-game hitting streak and extended to seven with one hit against Herrin and two against both Marion and Massac County. In his last seven games, the senior has had four two-hit games, with 10 RBIs and 13 runs scored.
Smothers (2-0) set down the side in order in the bottom of the ninth on 11 pitches to seal the win.
“Smothers is very versatile and can pitch in various situations,” Thompson said. “It just so happened that day we needed him at the end of the game.”