Baseball: Plano recovers for walk-off win
When Plano’s baseball team squandered a late-game chance in a wild loss to Somonauk Saturday, coach Bryan Phillips instructed his guys to remember that scenario — because it will pop up again this season.
Little did Phillips and the Reapers know that it would happen Monday.
After rival Sandwich tied the Interstate Eight contest at 3-3 with two runs in the top of the seventh, the Reapers came back for the 4-3 win in the bottom of the inning.
“They were hanging their heads after the game (Saturday), they were pretty disappointed with themselves,” Phillips said. “I told them that it’s going to happen again where you’re going to have to be successful in that spot. Learn from that, know what defeat tastes like and take advantage of it.”
Devin Ambrose reached on an error, moved up to third on a groundout and a passed ball and Trent Bowers drilled a 1-2 offering from Sandwich pitcher Jake Roehn to right with two outs to give Plano the dramatic win.
“It was a lot of pressure,” Bowers said. “I stayed confident, though. I was expecting a fastball because he was throwing pretty fast today.”
Bailey Watros singled in Mitch Brummel with the Indians’ first run in the second, but Plano pitcher Cody Dryden (2-2) was solid after that.
He received plenty of help from his outfield defense on an extremely windy day. The Reapers (10-10, 3-2) had two diving catches, one each from Luke Campbell in center and Kelby Gann in left. Gann also robbed Sandwich’s PJ Crotty of a home run to start the game.
Gann’s diving stab off Roehn started the seventh for Sandwich (7-10, 3-2), but a walk to Brummel, consecutive singles from Matt Daly and Watros and a sacrifice fly from Trey Jansen suddenly tied the game up.
“I told them that I was proud of the way we came back,” Sandwich coach Jason Van Pelt said. “We hit the ball hard a few times today. They had three great plays. The one to lead off the game up against the fence, what do you do? We hit it harder than them today maybe, but that doesn’t always work out for you.”
Roehn (2-4) was dominant most of the day on the mound for the Indians. He struck out 11 in the loss and Plano’s first two runs were wind-aided in the fourth. After a walk to Kyle Doney, Dryden hit a pop foul near the plate that appeared to be going out of play. But instead, the wind pushed the ball all the way to fair territory and it dropped in. Nate Lee took advantage with a two-run single to open a 2-1 lead.
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