Tattnall Square rides ups, downs into Game 3 of title series
Tattnall Square’s baseball team hoped Logan Simmons’ walk-off home run to close out Game 1 of the Trojans’ best-of-three GHSA Class A private school baseball championship series would set the stage for a title celebration.
Instead, following a disastrous inning in the field in Game 2, Simmons’ shot that gave the Trojans a 2-1 win in Game 1 became the hit that will keep Tattnall going for two more days.
A third inning that featured four Hebron Christian runs score on two walks and three errors — all with two outs — set the tone for the Lions’ 5-3 victory in Game 2.
Game 3 will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Monday. Hebron Christian (30-7) will be the designated home team for the game played at Tattnall (26-8), with the Lions winning the coin toss after Game 2.
Saturday was a wild day in which all four starting pitchers went the distance.
Hebron Christian’s Jake Hershman, who has signed with Wofford, struck out 12 Tattnall batters in Game 1, holding strong until giving up the homer to Simmons, a sophomore, to take the hard-luck loss.
Cory Bartholomew, who is headed to USC Upstate, gave up 11 hits but yielded just one run while striking out six to pick up the Game 1 win.
Ben Coker gave up three runs in the second inning of Game 2, two coming on a double by Luke Laskey. But he was the beneficiary of Tattnall’s fielding issues in the third inning, not allowing anymore runs to cross the rest of the way.
Garrett Houston took the Game 2 loss despite giving up just two hits.
Four who mattered
Simmons: The sophomore shortstop struck out twice and had a throwing error in the sixth in the opener that put runners on second and third, but he wound up saving the opener in the field and at the plate. He followed up his sixth-inning error by making a play from deep short for the third out of the inning, allowing Tattnall to get out of the situation without giving up a run. Then he ended things with his walk-off homer, a shot that wound up giving Tattnall the chance to play Monday.
Bartholomew: The Tattnall senior faced plenty of difficult situations on the mound in the opener, giving up a Caleb Martin homer to lead off the second and facing runners in scoring position in every inning but the fifth. Bartholomew worked his way out of all of those situations successfully, but he wasn’t as lucky at third base in Game 2, when three tricky balls hit toward him in the span of four batters wound up as errors. He did go 3-for-3 with a run scored in Game 2.
Hershman: The senior scattered five hits in the opener, settling in after giving up a first-inning run to Nick DiPonzio. Hershman struck out the side in the third and had multiple strikeouts in every inning but the fifth, in which Hebron picked up a double play, and the seventh.
Coker: Hebron’s Christian starter in Game 2 allowed just three hits in the final four innings.
Observations
Hershman had his stuff: After yielding a leadoff base hit to DiPonzio in the first that led to a run, Hershman shut down the Wake Forest-bound senior, striking him out on his ensuing three plate appearances in the opener.
But so did Bartholomew, at least in Game 1: Facing a bases-loaded situation with one down in the top of the seventh, Bartholomew pitched back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the jam.
Trojans go quietly in Game 2: After the three-run second inning, Tattnall put runners in scoring position just two more times, pushing a runner to second in the third inning and getting runners on second and third with two down in the fifth.
Double dose of lucky: Hebron Christian won two coin flips following Game 2. The first flip, in which the crew chief assigned sides of the coin to determine which side would call the flip to decide home-field advantage, was won by the Lions. Hebron Christian called the second flip correctly, giving the Lions home field.
They said it
Tattnall head coach Joey Hiller on the range of emotions Saturday: “That’s why baseball is so frustratingly awesome. (Saturday) was not our best effort in either game. Hopefully Monday, we’ll get that.”
Hiller on the third-inning meltdown in Game 2: “Heck, we had a 3-1 lead, two outs, none on. A walk, a couple of errors, and that’s four runs in a hurry. That got us beat.”
Hebron Christian head coach Ben Drust on the Game 1 loss: “One pitch turned a great day into a tough day.”
Drust on bouncing back: “When you put the ball in play, good things will happen. They executed that plan great. We got some help, but we’ll take that help when we can get it.”
What’s next?
Game 3 takes place at 5:30 p.m. on Monday at Tattnall, with Hebron Christian taking the field as the designated home team for the winner-take-all contest for the GHSA Class A private school championship.
This story was originally published May 14, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Tattnall Square rides ups, downs into Game 3 of title series."