Baseball: Lane outlasts Harlan, Simeon up next

Updated: May 18, 2012 8:23PM

Lane’s Cody Davis didn’t have his best stuff in Friday’s 12-8 Public League semifinal win over Harlan at U.S. Cellular Field, but he knew his teammates had his back.

“Knowing our team can come back and score a lot of runs is a great feeling. It does a lot for my confidence,” said Davis, who pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowing seven runs on 10 hits while striking out six.

Davis looked to be in good shape heading into the top of the third inning with a 3-0 lead. But when the dust cleared, Harlan (24-11) had scored five runs in the frame thanks to clutch singles from Arramis Johnson (1-for-3, RBI), Andre Hogan (2-for-3, three RBI), and Semaje Patterson (1-for-3, RBI).

“I wasn’t too worried,” Davis said. “I knew our hitters could come back, that we weren’t going to give up.”

The Indians (21-12) responded immediately. William Munoz (two walks) opened the bottom of the third with a walk before Ari Harris (1-for-3) followed with a single. Davis (2-for-3) then walked, loading the bases for Alex Sheehan (2-for-3, two RBI), who came through with a two-run single. Walter Nolan-Cohn capped the offensive burst with another RBI single and Lane recaptured the lead at 6-5.

“We’ve been seeing the ball a lot better then before, and that results in hits,” Sheehan said.

Lane added three insurance runs in the fifth and three in the sixth, as Davis struggled to get back on track. He gave up three more runs in the seventh before being pulled.

Lane will play Simeon for the championship and Sheehan is looking forward to the challenge.

“Seeing that we can put up runs like this gives us a lot of confidence going into the next game. One through nine we know we can keep it going.”

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