HAGERSTOWN – Whoever invented sudden death never had to live through it.
For the North Hagerstown baseball, the prolonged suddenness might have been worse than the death itself.
In fact, the whole experience was like a balloon with a slow leak.
The highly touted Hubs allowed Oakdale to score two runs in the eighth before they went down in order in the bottom of the inning in what became a season-ending loss in the Class 3A West Region I semifinals.
North (16-5) entered the postseason as the No. 1 seed, but failed to defend home-field advantage after a first-round bye against the fourth-seeded Bears. The Hubs started the season at 10-0 but limped home with a 6-5 mark.
The game was played with more strategy than offense. The two teams had only eight hits – three by North – in the eight innings. Oakdale rolled the dice on a couple of occasions to pull out the win.
The Bears manufactured the winning runs in the eight with one hit, but used other “small ball” methods to apply pressure to North.
Oakdale started its rally when Cooper Thompson drew a one-out walk off North reliever Henry Lewis. After Thompson stole second base, ninth hitter Conley Hajjur singled to left-center field to put runners on first and third.
Nolan Noweski made things happened with a squeeze bunt down the first base line to score the go-ahead run. He reached first safely as the Hubs were late to cover first base.
Oakdale made it a two-run cushion when Graydon Beaver hit what could have been a double-play grounder to second. North got the first out at second base, but the relay to first was high an got past first baseman Blake Custer. Hajjar scored from second on the play.
Bears reliever Charles Scarzello finished off the comeback win by closing out North with a strikeout and two flyouts.
Each team managed one run against Oakdale starter Joseph Shultz and North’s Ian Kelley. Both were tested and crossed the 100-pitch plateau before being lifted in the 1-1 tie.
Kelley battled through 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run on three hits. He only walked one to go with eight strikeouts despite pitching from behind in the count on many occasions.
Shultz was also tested in his 5 1/3 innings, allowing a run on three hits with three walks and five strikeouts.
North grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third, starting with James Ortiz’s one-out single to right. He stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch before Eli Brown walked. Matt Mallardi plated the run with a sacrifice fly.
Oakdale got the run back in the fourth as Graydon Beaver led off with a bunt single to first before taking second on a passed ball. After stealing third, Beaver was awarded home on a balk. Umpires ruled Kelley had started moving forward before trying to start the rundown along the third base line.
After getting their run, the Hubs managed to get three runners in scoring but couldn’t get the key hit. They left one of those runners at third with two outs in the seventh before an inning-ending groundout.
Besides Ortiz, North got singles by Jackson Coulter and Cole Bratburd.
