| By Steve Tappa, |
 |
| Dispatch/Argus staff writer |
May 26, 2000 1:49 AM
RI not at best, but still wins
By Steve Tappa, Dispatch/Argus staff writer
Andy Campbell was relieved, if not completely satisfied.
"These kinds of games don't do anything for my hairline,'' the rookie Rock Island
baseball coach joked Thursday while rubbing his fingers through an already skimpy pate.
"It was not our best effort. But, in the tournament, all that matters is that you
win. When you do that, you get to play another day. That's what we did.''
Although it was far from workmanlike fashion, the second-seeded Rocks got the job done
against upstart Sterling, surviving by the slimmest of margins in the regional opener at
Rock Island High School.
After allowing Sterling to rally from a 7-1 deficit to lead 8-7 heading into the home
half of the fifth, Rocky rebounded with a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth for a
10-8 win.
Last year's state semifinalists now host Geneseo at 11 a.m. Saturday in a rematch of
last year's regional title game.
"Our guys could have folded the tent. They could have put their heads down and
said to themselves, `It's just not our day," Campbell said after his crew improved to
24-10. Sterling's season ends at 12-17.
"But all of these guys have been in big games before. They've played so much
travel and legion baseball, they know what it takes to pull a game like this out and they
did it. They didn't lose focus, kept plugging away and good things eventually
happened."
The Rocks committed six errors -- four of them enabling Sterling's comeback. But when
the game was on the line, it was the young Warriors making the game-turning miscues.
Sterling had three errors and at least that many misplays in the field. Most helped
spot Rocky the early lead, but errors in the fifth and sixth also helped the Rocks
rebound.
In the fifth, a throwing error on the back end of a double-play attempt put Jake Vroman
in scoring position to tie the game on Jim Wignall's one-out, RBI double.
In the sixth, after an opening error put Dan Morrison on base, Sterling first baseman
Kyle Fisher failed for the first time in four tries to dig out a throw in the dirt,
nullifying another double-play ball. That allowed Marcus Youngquist to reach base and
score the winning run two batters later on Nick Carmack's base hit.
"If we make a play here or there, it might have been a different story. One more
out in a lot of innings would have made a difference,'' said Sterling coach Bruce
Scheidegger, whose club saw the Rocks roar back from a 7-4 deficit to win 12-7 in their
final two at-bats in the regular season. "But then, they helped us out a lot, too.''
Rocky ace Bryce Palar (8-1) survived a rocky outing to go the distance. The senior
fanned five, walked one and allowed five earned runs on 13 hits. Adam Anderson (4-5) was
the hard-luck loser in relief.
Vroman went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a pair of doubles. Wignall had the game's only
other extra base hit, driving in a game-high four runs in a 2-for-4 performance. Carmack
also finished with two hits and two RBIs while Palar, Clayton George, Youngquist and Jim
DeJonghe also contributed a pair of hits to a 15-hit attack.
Copyright 2000, Moline Dispatch
Publishing Co. |
