Blue Devils dash district dreams: Lebanon ousts Pioneers with 5-0 tournament win
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But Monday night, that sting was a little more painful, as WCHS was ousted from the league tournament with a hard-fought 5-0 loss.
The defeat finished the Pioneers? 2006 campaign with a record of 20 wins balanced against 16 losses.
?Overall, you always want to accomplish more than we did,? head coach J.W. Holt said after Monday?s game. ?The championship is always the goal, so we?re disappointed. But I feel like this team has reached the point where we realize we can win 20 or so games against good teams, now we?ve just got to step up to that next level where we?re competing for championships.?
Junior Derrin Rogers toed the rubber for the Pioneers, and battled through four scoreless innings against the Blue Devils? Christian Jennings.
While Lebanon kept Warren County off the scoreboard, the Pioneers had plenty of early opportunities to break the 0-0 tie, as they left the bases loaded in the first inning and stranded seven runners through the first four innings of play.
?We got a good pitching performance out of Derrin, especially for those first few innings,? Holt said, ?but we just left too many on base and couldn?t execute by coming up with the big hits to give ourselves a lead when we had the chance.?
Lebanon?s Chase Blalock singled with one out in the fifth, for just the second hit recorded against Rogers. A walk to Kyle Blalock and a passed ball put runners at second and third, but after Rogers struck out pinch-hitter Chase Hudson he looked to be getting out of the jam.
A slow roller to second proved to be troublesome, though, as the ball was thrown away by Warren County?s Nick Cantrell, allowing Lebanon to score the game?s first run.
David Layne led off the sixth by producing the first ?earned? run of the game, blasting a 1-1 offering from Rogers over the left-field wall for a solo home run which put the Devils on top 2-0.
After being retired in order in the fifth and sixth innings, including going down on just four Jennings pitches in the sixth, the Pioneers fell behind what would prove to be the game?s final margin when Lebanon scored three runs in the top of the seventh.
Brent Morris, Ben Spurlock and Shayne Martin all laid down perfectly executed bunts to start the frame, loading the bases for Layne, who laced a single to left to score Morris and chase Rogers from the mound in favor of Josh Mullins.
Cody Ferrell, who had already singled but was picked off by Rogers earlier in the game, followed Layne?s hit with a two-run single of his own, putting the Blue Devils ahead by what would prove to be the final score as the Pioneers were retired in order in the seventh.
Ferrell and Layne finished with two hits each for the Devils, while Josh Bratcher had the only multi-hit game for WCHS, going 2-for-3.
Rogers took the loss, allowing five runs (four earned) over six innings plus the first four batters of the seventh. He gave up seven hits, walked five and struck out six men. Mullins fanned two and allowed one hit in the seventh.
Jennings went the distance for Lebanon, which advanced to take on Blackman in the pool finals on Tuesday night. He gave up four hits and three walks, and struck out four.