By Scott Vanscoy
The Galena Bears narrowly defeated the McAuley Catholic Warriors, 2-1, to advance in the state playoffs on Monday night. With two outs in the tenth, junior Austin Holt laced a double between the outfielders to score Lukas Burk with the walk-off win. Holt, who had struggled at the plate all night and had made a base running blunder in the third inning, was looking for redemption.
“Early in the game I felt like I was trying to do too much with it,” said Holt. “When they changed pitchers, he changed up his arm angles and that’s not something we see very often. I was ready to hit a fastball; he threw me two curveballs earlier and I was sitting on a fastball. I got it, and drove it the other way. When I made the base running mistake earlier in the game, it was a game changer, it gave them a lot of momentum, but we bounced back and we came out on top.”
The game was a pitcher’s duel as both starting pitchers kept the hitters off balance and out of sync. McAuley’s starting pitcher, senior Tommy Doyle, reached his pitch limit after six innings. Doyle was very effective, allowing Galena just one unearned run while striking out seven. Meanwhile, Galena’s starting pitcher, senior Caleb Hall, went six and two thirds innings, allowing McAuley just one run while striking out ten. Hall’s one mistake was a homerun hit by Doyle.
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“It was a game of endurance,” said Hall. “I’m not a big fan of the pitch count, I used to throw more than this. I tell my team all the time, I don’t throw real fast, I throw meatballs. I try to confuse the other team. Coach always tells us you’ve got to score more than one run to win the game, so I wasn’t too worried after I gave up the homerun. I hated being done but I felt like it was time for me to let Logan Sorrell take over.”
Galena put the lead-off hitter on base in the first five innings. They also had runners in scoring position in those innings, but could only get one run in. It seemed as if the Bears couldn’t get that big hit when they needed it.
“This team has a lot of confidence in themselves and each other,” said Galena coach Byron Richardson. “They kept playing and knew that they could find a way to win this game.”
In the third inning, Galena got the lead-off hitter Coby Sartin on and he scored on an error by McAuley shortstop Brendyn Taylor. It was with two outs that Holt had his base running blunder, making the third out at third. It was beginning to look like a game of missed opportunities for the Bears.
Doyle led off the fourth inning with a long homerun to put McAuley on the board but it didn’t rattle Hall. The fifth inning saw the Bears get their first two runners on base but left them on as Doyle struck out two of the next three batters to end the inning. Hall ran into trouble of his own in the top of the sixth when the first two batters got doubles, putting runners on second and third, with no outs. With an intentional walk to senior Dylan Londo, the bases were full of Warriors but Hall proceeded to set down the next three batters in order.
The game continued on, tied at one. Each starting pitcher reached their pitch limit and the bullpens took over. Both bullpens pitched well, allowing just one hit between the two.
In the top of the tenth, Sorrell walked the nine-hole hitter in McAuley’s order. Sorrell then induced lead-off hitter Taylor into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
“The nine-hole, I should have been better than that,” said Sorrell. “I don’t like to walk the nine-hole hitter. On the next hitter our second baseman made a good play, he fed the baseball perfect to our shortstop and we got the double play.”
In the bottom of the tenth, the first two Bear hitters made outs but then Burk drew a walk on a close ball four. This led to Holt’s heroics. Holt laced a double between the right and center fielders that went to the wall. Burk sprinted around the bases to score the winning run.
“Holt has done that all year long,” said Richardson. “He’s been a guy that has a lot of fire for us, that finds a way to get big hits, big opportunities, and get things going for us. He’s done an outstanding job, I can’t say enough.”
On the loser’s side, McAuley coach Jason McVey couldn’t be prouder of his boys.
“They played their hearts out; I mean they’ve played like that all season long,” said McVey. “I told them they had nothing to hang their heads about whatsoever. We faced a really good team today, a couple untimely hits by us, but I have nothing negative to say about our team. They absolutely played their hearts out.”
Ultimately, one team had to lose but both teams deserved a win.
“That’s a good ball team; they’ve got several good arms, so we knew we were going to have to compete all game long and try to find ways to score,” said Richardson. “Doyle did a nice job when we had opportunities to still keep us off balance enough that we weren’t able to get it done. It’s been great with our schedule this year, we’ve seen some really, really good arms of all kinds: guys that throw hard and guys that mix it up like that last guy, Taylor. I feel like it prepared us to where we feel like we’ve got a chance to hit anybody that throws against us.”
Galena will continue to play in the state playoffs on Wednesday at Mansfield.
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