Hampshire 7, Milledgeville 5
BYRON -- Through five innings, Hampshire was cruising along with a comfortable lead against Milledgeville in a Class 2A baseball sectional semifinal here Tuesday.
Then things got a little more exciting than coach Steve Ream and the Whip-Purs would have preferred. But the Whips held on for a 7-5 win.
They will face the winner of today's Mendota vs. Lena-Winslow matchup in Saturday's final.
Hampshire (17-13) led 6-1 before the Missiles rallied for 4 runs in the sixth inning. After Ryan Burke knocked in an insurance run in the top of the seventh, Milledgeville promptly put the first 2 runners on base against Hampshire starter Kent Larson.
Ream brought in Burke, who got 3 straight outs for the save.
Burke also had 4 of the Whip-Purs' 15 hits. Bo Price, Zach Crinigan, Matt Kuefner, Joe Moore, and James Goebbert had 2 hits apiece.
"Going into that last inning, we just knew we had to shut them down one last inning, buckle down, and we ended up doing it," said Burke.
It was far from a perfect game by Hampshire. The Whips left 12 men on base, had 3 more thrown out on the bases, and committed 3 errors.
"That's my biggest fear in any game, that if we leave guys on and we don't get that two-out hit or whatever, that's going to come back and haunt us," said Ream. "It almost did today, because we were cruising for awhile. We were absolutely cruising. And then I think when that happens sometimes you relax, and our guys relaxed."
Hampshire jumped ahead in the first inning on a bases-loaded walk by Joe Moore and an error. Milledgeville got one back in the bottom half, but Hampshire broke the game open with 4 more runs in the second.
Burke, Crinigan, Kuefner and Moore launched consecutive, run-scoring hits with one out.
But then came that relaxation. The Whips left 2 men on in the third and fourth, left the bases loaded in the fifth, and left a man on in the sixth after having 2 on and one out.
Meanwhile, Larson cruised through 5 innings as well, allowing just 4 hits and striking out five. But the Missiles finally found the range in the sixth. After Matt Scholl doubled, Scott Powell singled and both players wound up scoring on an overthrow. Matt Vanoosten's two-out double brought in 2 more.
After Nick Holland and Ryan Clayton singled to start the seventh, Ream was forced to call on Burke, who will start Saturday. Burke got two outs on comebackers before throwing a curveball for a called third strike on Adam Powell to end it.