HAMBURG >> This Hamburg crew just does not want to quit playing ball.
The clutch gene reared itself again Sunday evening at Memorial Park against Schuylkill Valley in a Schuylkill-Berks Legion tournament qualifier.
Trailing by four runs and down to its final five outs in Game 2 of the best-of-3 series, Hamburg (13-4) rallied to post a 5-4 win in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Ryan Smith was plunked on the bill of his batting helmet with the bases loaded.
Hamburg trailed 4-0 after five, got three runs in the sixth, then plated a pair in the seventh to walk it off.
Having won the first game of the series by an 11-3 score on Saturday, the Reds improbably avoided a dicey winner-take-all third game, which would have followed Sunday’s Game 2 in short order.
“Pretty sure it was a curveball, it just didn’t break,” Smith said of pitcher Jeff Yordy’s offering. “In that situation (bases loaded), you can’t back out of that pitch. It hit the helmet, just a little. I tried to turn my shoulder (to cover up) and it hit helmet.”
Logan Adams walked on a high full-count pitch with two outs and the bags jammed to knot the game at 4, prior to Smith’s walk-off plunking.
Hamburg will face Fleetwood Post 625 in the Schuylkill-Berks tournament on Wednesday.
The rally to extinguish the Falcons (5-14) resembled the same tightrope act the Hamburg Hawks danced with in winning the District 3-AAA championship, and coming within one out of making the PIAA title game in the spring. Three Hawks wins went to extra innings.
“I guess when we get late in games, we just grab hold of some sort of inner intensity or something like that and perform to the highest ability we have,” Smith said. “For us, when we get that first run, it gets easier.”
Virtually the same cast hopped right into Legion season barely 24 hours after that gut-wrenching state semifinal loss to Bellefonte in Chambersburg less than a month ago. The squad changed uniforms, nicknames and league affiliation, but little else. It’s been all ball, all the time since March for coach Nick Evangelista’s bunch.
Five outs from facing a third game and trailing 4-0, Derek Roberts slapped a one-out single to left field in the bottom of the sixth off Yordy, who had allowed just one hit to that point. It seemed innocuous in the moment, but Corey Evangelista followed with a walk – and then Adams slapped an RBI double down the line and the Reds came alive.
Corey Evangelista had moved to third on Adams’ double and scampered home on a strikeout pitch in the dirt when SV catcher Corey Zimmerman was forced to throw to first base to record the out. Adams alertly moved to third on the play. That paid dividends when Yordy’s next pitch was wild. Adams scored and suddenly, it was 4-3.
“Roberts got the (one-out) hit, and we ended up scoring a couple runs and we cut the lead in half,” Nick Evangelista said, in pointing to the moment when he thought the tide was beginning to turn in his club’s favor. “We didn’t try to get all four back at once.”
Yordy and Hamburg’s Janson Youndt both went the distance. Yordy outpitched his counterpart until the final frame, when it all fell apart on him in a hurry.
“Janson battled,” Hamburg’s manager said of his starter, Youndt. “He didn’t have his best stuff out there and he would be the first to tell you that. His stuff when it’s not his best is still good enough to get by. He throws three pitches well and he settled in toward the end.”
Schuylkill Valley took a 3-0 lead in the top of the third. Ian McCole’s bombed a one-out offering with two runners on base to deep center that Roberts got to – and dropped. It was ruled an error. That plated Yordy, who had singled and stole second, with the game’s first run. Austin Deitz had reached on a fielder’s choice prior to McCole’s fly ball and crossed when Youndt threw a wild pitch. An infield groundout scored the Falcons’ third run.
McCole added an RBI in the fifth to push it to 4-0. Yordy had given up just one hit through four frames and had a shutout through five. A third and deciding game looked quite probable.
Unfortunately for Schuylkill Valley, Hamburg still had six outs left, which is plenty for the current thrill-a-minute Reds.
