By Jacob Govero
Springfield Catholic’s season was all but over heading into the bottom of the seventh.
“I was already over there, with tears in my eyes ready to give these guys a speech about the end of our season,” Catholic head coach Jason Daugherty said.
But then one hit dropped in. Followed by another. And another.
Catholic entered the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 7-2 to sixth-seeded Hollister. A grand slam by Missouri State commit Mason Dickemann and a Grant Schoen single game keyed a comeback, walk-off win for the Irish to give them an 8-7 win.
“The stars just aligned for us, we kept fighting, I got the pitch I was looking for and took it for a ride,” said Dickemann after the game.
After a walk to Zach Cole, Catholic first baseman Luthy hit a drive to the wall in right field tying the game 7-7. Luthy would come around to score on Schoen’s game-winning hit.
Schoen thought the game might have been over before he came up. “On Josef’s ball, I thought it was going to go out so I was all ready to mob at home-plate, but I saw it drop. I had a rough day at the plate so I was already kind of shaking as I got up there, but the first pitch was a high fastball and I did what I could with it.”
Catholic Head Coach Jason Daugherty was almost in disbelief over the outcome.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
“I hate to steal something from Jack Buck but I don’t believe what I just saw. It’s like the whole thing was a dream,” Daugherty said.
Things didn’t start out exactly as planned for Catholic. Starting pitcher Dickemann battled control issues early giving up walks to two Tigers leading to two runs in the bottom of the first. Hollister would go up 3-0 as shortstop Ethan Parks came around off a hard shot by Landon Farquhar that got passed the third baseman.
Catholic answered with their first run in of the game in the bottom of the second. After a fielding error, Center fielder Zach Cole singled to left scoring Justin Haake to make it a 3-1 game. The error was one of five on the game for Hollister.
Hollister built its lead to 7-1 after the fifth inning. An error by Catholic put men on first and third. A sacrifice bunt by right fielder Trey Dorlon scored Logan Armitage.
“They hit the ball really hard, I take my hat off to Hollister,” said Coach Daugherty. “They played well, they put runs up on us in almost every inning, John Burgi is a great coach but I don’t know. We had everything planned out on how to win a district championship… but give credit to Hollister, we survived and will advance.”
At the time up by five seemed like a safe lead to almost everyone except Hollister Head Coach John Burgi,
“They’re a great ball club and we held them as long as we could, we did what we needed to offensively but I told myself that we needed to score one more run in the top of the seventh…and we didn’t do it, if we do, it might have been a different ball game.”
With the loss, Hollister finished the season at 13-13 with eight of those loses by one run. After a tough end to the season, there are some bright spots for Hollister.
“We don’t have anybody graduating, we could’ve been 21-5 that’s what I told the guys,” said Coach Burgi. “So we have to learn how to win a one-run ballgame it is simple as that. So that’s what we’re going to do.”
Catholic improved to 20-6 after this emotional victory and advances to play Rogersville on Monday back here in Hollister at 7 p.m.
SPRINGFIELD CATHOLIC – 8, HOLLISTER-7
Hollister – 2112100 – 7 7 5
Catholic – 0100106 – 8 11 0
BATTING
2B- Hollister: Dorlon, Armitage, Catholic: Luthy. HR- Catholic: Dickemann
PITCHING
WP: Will Duff 0R, 2/3 IP, 0 H, 1 K
