SA goes back-to-back

MONROE — Twice the Tigers had loaded the bases. Twice, Grant Besser had gotten out of the jams unscathed.

But when the same situation popped up in the seventh inning, the ace was gone because of a high pitch count. So coach Brad Buckingham turned to the other end of the battery.

Mark Clary tossed his catcher’s gear aside and threw three consecutive strikes to sit down Elias Inskeep, finishing the Class 2A No. 2 South Adams High School baseball team’s 7-3 win over the Bluffton Tigers in Monday’s championship game at Adams Central to secure back-to-back sectional titles.

“It feels great. And this team is a lot different from last year,” said Buckingham, whose squad ended a 15-year sectional championship drought in 2017. “This year, you’ve got the X on the back the entire year, which makes for a little bit more pressure … It’s kind of like getting the monkey off your back when you can break through and get on to the rest of the tournament.”

The rest of the tournament for the Starfires begins at 10 a.m. Saturday when they will travel to the northwest corner of the state to play Bishop Noll in the first of two regional semifinal games at Whiting. The championship game is slated for 6 p.m.

Besser, who put his name at No. 2 in the state record book last week when he struck out 21 batters in a single game, departed the mound after recording a strikeout to end the sixth inning on his 118th pitch. (New IHSAA rules this year limit pitchers to 120 innings in a game.)

Austin Davidson retired two of the first three batters he faced in relief in the seventh inning, but a couple of hit batsman and a walk loaded the bases to bring the tying run to the plate. After Davidson left a couple of pitches to Inskeep in the dirt, Buckingham headed to the mound and made the call for Clary.

“When I gave him the ball, I said, ‘You’ve been preparing for this all your life,’” said Buckingham, who then had to pause for moment as emotion began to overcome him. “He’s worked so hard, all throughout his career. … We needed him behind the plate. There are times that we think, ‘Hey, he’s got as good of stuff as Besser does.’ But he’s behind the plate.

“Bringing him in, I had confidence that he could get the job done. And he did it.”

Clary tossed his first pitch for a strike, and Inskeep fouled off his second. The Bluffton second baseman swung and missed at the third offering, and Clary threw both arms in the air in celebration as he walked off the mound toward the South Adams dugout.

The senior, who had missed last year’s sectional championship game because of an injury, then joined his replacement behind the plate, Grady Sprunger, in a jumping embrace before being wrapped up by Davidson and then surrounded by a swarm of celebrating Starfires.

“You almost hesitate for a second, because you want to ask yourself, ‘Is it really happening?’” said Clary. “I didn’t get to experience it last year, being injured. Experiencing it this year as a senior is a lot nicer being out there for it instead of watching it happen.”

South Adams (27-2) had a 1-0 lead after the first inning, but it was the second that marked the turning point.

The Tigers (15-11) got their first two runners on, and Everett Johnson loaded the bases when he was hit by a pitch with two outs. No. 9 hitter Brandon Lockwood sent the ball deep to the gap between left fielder Keagan Yoder and center fielder Terry Dawn. As they met, Yoder reached his arm up, made the catch, collided with Dawn and went flying, but kept control of the ball for the third out.

“I saw it going deep left-center. I ran straight to it. It was close. Both me and Terry were very close. He was gonna dive, and I knew I had it. So I called him off on it and ran him over. Still had it,” said Yoder, whose catch likely saved a bases-clearing hit. “It felt really good. It felt like it started a roll for us all.

“I think it got us going.”

The Tigers gave South Adams a little help at building the momentum, as starter Gavin King hit Dawn with a pitch and James Arnold reached base thanks to an error on a sacrifice bunt attempt to start the bottom of the frame. After Bluffton recorded an out, Besser, Nic Stuber and Joe Stuber recorded consecutive singles to plate two more runs before Isaiah Baumgartner broke the game open with a two-out, two-run single to left for a 6-0 lead.

“That’s a big momentum switch,” said Bluffton coach Stacy Herrold, who was left to lament the 13 runners his team left stranded. “Definitely a swing of emotions for sure.”

In the third inning, the Tigers again loaded the bases, this time with one out, but were unable to score. They finally broke through for three runs in the fifth inning to cut their deficit in half, but left two runners stranded in the sixth before Clary came in to close the door in the seventh.

Clary picked up the save in relief of Besser, who gave up three runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out seven in six innings.

King suffered the loss as he allowed six hits and three free bases in 1 2/3 innings.