Western clobbers Patriots (06/06/07)

It didn't go quite how coach Lea Selvey drew it up.

The Class 3A No. 7 Jay County baseball team couldn't get much to go right Tuesday night when they returned to their home field for the regional championship game. The Patriots allowed two runs in five different innings, committed four errors and had one player knocked out in an 11-1 defeat at the hands of the visiting Western Panthers.

"That wasn't us," said Jay County coach Lea Selvey, before quoting assistant coach Jeff Hatch quoting an iconic sports film. "It's like the line in 'Bad News Bears' - you may always love this game, but sometimes the game doesn't love you back. She didn't love us today."

The problems started in the first inning, and unfortunately for the home team, they never stopped.

Wesley Dickinson hit a grounder up the middle to open the game. The ball was fielded by second baseman Josh Selvey, but he had no chance to get the speedy leadoff hitter at first and Ross Love followed by reaching base on an error.

After a strikeout, Adam Dillman hit what looked like a routine fly ball to left field. But Casey Waters fell down and lost track of the ball, which dropped cleanly to the grass for an RBI single.

Parker Adams added a two-out RBI single for a 2-0 lead, and Western (21-6) never trailed.

Jay County (24-6) cut the lead in half in the bottom of the first, but the Panthers scored twice in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings to pull away. Five of the runs were unearned, thanks to the four Patriot errors.

"We want to try to get something every inning," said Western Coach Ty Calloway, whose team advances to play Andrean in Saturday's semi-state tournament at Plymouth. "The key to this team is we start rallies from any part of this lineup. That makes my job a little easier.

"We're happy. This has been a goal all year, to get through the sectional and go as far as we can. Last year we thought we had a shot and we got stumbled in the sectional and we had some kids coming back and that was our main goal, to get in the tournament as deep as we can."

Dickinson was a pain for Jay County all night long as he finished with four hits. He managed to drive in a run the only time he recorded an out. He had a triple, a stolen base and four runs.

Dillman also stole a base as he totaled two hits and two RBIs, and Marc Slick scored twice.

While the Western offense stayed consistent, Love locked down on the Patriots after the shaky opening inning.

Love hit Michael Jobe with a pitch to lead off the game, then gave up a bunt single to Josh Selvey and an RBI single to Thomas McCowan. But he retired the next seven batters in a row and allowed just two hits over the course of the final six innings for the win.

"Roscoe, if he gets in trouble, it's usually in the first for some reason," said Calloway of his starter. "He's an offspeed pitcher and when we saw Jay County ... we have a couple of power pitchers, but we decided to go with the offspeed. I think it paid dividends."

In all, Love allowed the one run on four hits and two walks while striking out seven.

"You have to give them a lot of credit, they are a pretty good ball club and (Love) moved the ball around on us enough that we never got comfortable at the plate," said Selvey. "We had been scoring runs by the truckload and we didn't in this game."

The play that will be remembered from the game cost the Patriots their catcher for the final inning and Western its third baseman for the semi-state semifinal.

With the bases loaded and one out in the sixth inning, Craig Barker singled to right field. Jordan Kucholick scored easily from third on the play, but as Adams rounded second base right fielder Trey Dunn fired the ball home.

His throw was 5 to 10 feet up the third base line, and JCHS catcher Josh Ludy moved down the line to field the ball. Adams collided with Ludy a split second after the ball arrived, knocking the ball from his mitt and leaving the Patriots' catcher lying flat on the ground.

Adams was called out and ejected from the game for failing to attempt to avoid the contact. Ludy was helped off the field by trainer Rita Bollenbacher and assistant coach Jeff Hatch. He was fading in and out of consciousness in the dugout, and was later transported to Jay County Hospital by ambulance.

He suffered a concussion, and was released from the hospital just after midnight.

Because of the ejection, Adams will automatically be suspended for the Panthers' next game. Calloway said he felt there was no intent and the umpire had made the wrong call.

"If that had happened the other way around I would have been upset too," said Selvey. "But I think they made the right call."

The loss ended one of the best seasons in school history for Jay County, which was ranked among the top 10 in Class 3A for much of the year and won its first sectional title since 1995.

The campaign also including a variety of records, including team marks for hits, doubles and home runs in a single season. Ludy set new single-season records for runs and home runs, and Jobe tied the single season wins record.

"I'm disappointed in today's game, but the season has been great," said Selvey. "I had some great seniors, and I especially want to wish the seniors luck. I'm very proud of them.

"I told the guys I don't want them to look back at this season as being today ... We had a bad day, but we had a great year. I have nothing but admiration for these kids."[[In-content Ad]]