Fortune smiles on Stevenson at Fremd

Sometimes it pays to be as lucky as you are good.

Stevenson trailed Fremd 3-2 with men on first and second and one out in the bottom of the seventh inning in the host Vikings' regional championship game.

And when Patriots catcher Matt Geissler hit a easy double play groundball to second, it looked like Stevenson's season was over.

But before Fremd could make a play, the ball bounced off the leg of the field umpire and a hustling Geissler reached first safely to load the bases.

The next batter, Erick King, legged out a fielder's choice to plate the tying run, and the Patriots won it in the bottom of the eighth when Corey Lasky's base hit drove in Pat Coulbourn from second base with the winning run.

"I told my guys before the game that I felt we were a team of destiny," said Stevenson coach Paul Mazzuca, "and I've never seen a ball hit an umpire like that before.

"We got a lucky bounce. I guess we caught a break."

Fremd coach Chris Piggott, a Stevenson grad, saw his team rally with 3 runs in the top of the seventh inning to take the lead on hits from Joey DePaolis, Chris Doloughty and Zenon Kolakowski, had a different take.

"I guess the ball didn't bounce our way," said Piggott. "We've been in situations before this year, when we had to score runs to stay in a game, and today the guys came through again. They've risen to the occasion all season, battled and stayed focused. They believed they could win this game from the first pitch to the last pitch."

Stevenson, playing as the home team per playoff rules, got the winning run on in the bottom of the eighth with one out when Colbourn doubled to the center-field fence.

Then Lasky stroked a base hit to right field, and Colbourn saw his chance.

"I ran to third and saw the stop sign, but then I saw the ball wasn't picked up cleanly and decided to take a chance and try for home."

Colbourn slid in safely just under a strong throw.

"I know that all the Fremd outfielders have strong arms," said the senior, "so I wasn't even looking at the throw. I was just worried about scoring. I wanted to win this game so bad."

Matt Robin got the win in relief of Brad Sorkin, who threw 62/3 strong innings.

Jake Llanas, who was a couple of bounces of the baseball away from saving the game for starter Clint Terry, was the hard-luck loser in relief for the Vikings.

"We picked a bad inning today (the seventh) to have a defensive breakdown," said Mazzuca, "but once again, these guys picked each other up like they've done all season."