Burlington Central trips up Sycamore
Burlington Central’s Blake Alexander would not consider himself a stolen base threat.
But he took one when it mattered the most. Tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the seven, Alexander stole second and eventually scored the game-winning run against Sycamore in the championship game of the Class 3A Hampshire baseball regional Saturday.
“I’m not too fast, but I got a pretty good jump on it,” said Alexander, who reached base on an error to open the inning. “It was a hit-and-run play.”
Alexander scored easily from third when Riley Jensen nailed a walk off shot to deep left field to drive in the run, giving the Rockets a 4-3 victory. Alexander advanced to third off a nicely placed sacrifice bunt from designated hitter Michael Scott, who had a huge 2-run single in the fifth.
“He gave me a curveball and I was just trying to hit it hard and hopefully it would hit one of the holes,” Jensen said. “We kept battling and never got down.”
The game capped off a back-and-forth affair between the teams and gave Central (26-10) its first regional title since 2010. The Rockets face off against Prairie Ridge at 4 p.m. on Thursday in the second semifinal of the Sycamore sectional. Marmion and Freeport meet in the first semifinal on Wednesday.
The hope for the Rockets is that this will be the most dramatic finish Central will need to reel off.
“It hadn’t been real great until then,” Rockets’ coach Kyle Nelson said. “When it mattered the most Michael Scott got a great bunt down.”
Reed Hunnicutt tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning with some heads-up base running. Hunnicutt reach second base on an error to open the inning and then scored when the Spartans (21-13) had a second error on the inning in an attempt to field pitcher Zach Ranney’s groundball.
Pitcher Will Olson hit Rockets’ third baseman Bryan Cynova hard in the head a batter later, which allowed pinch-runner Clem Acitelli to take first. The Spartans then made a second call to the bullpen and Matt Godinsky (6-5) took the loss despite not allowing an earned run.
Central’s 2-1 lead was short-lived as Sycamore scored a pair of runs the next half inning to lead 3-2. Ranney (8-2) allowed 2 runs, 1 earned in the inning off 2 hits with an error leading to a Godinsky run.
He did not surrender a hit in the seventh inning and finished the game allowing 3 runs on 6 hits, while striking out 5.
“I was getting slightly tired,” Ranney said. “I kept hitting my spots, placing it where coach was telling me to.”
Sycamore took an early lead when Nate Haacker scored in the top of the second. The lead held until Central’s 2-run fifth inning. After getting just one out and allowing 5 baserunners, Sycamore pulled starter Cole Nelson. Nelson gave up 2 runs on 5 hits and walked 5.