Buckeyes blast past Portland

CINCINNATI — One pitch.
The Rockets were one pitch away from a berth in the championship game.
But it was one pitch that sailed over the fence for a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Then it was one pitch that sent Portland packing.
Zac Johnson lofted a fastball from Portland Rockets pitcher Mitch Waters over the fence in left field in the bottom of the 11th inning as the Lake Erie Buckeyes stunned Portland in the National Amateur Baseball Federation regional tournament semifinal Sunday at Roselawn Park in Cincinnati.?
“I was struggling to locate pretty much the whole game,” said Waters, who entered in the ninth inning after Johnson hit a three-run shot off Portland starter Dan Bollenbacher to tie the game. “I was just trying to get ahead of him. I threw a fastball, outside corner.”
Johnson popped the ball in the air to left field, and as Tristen Becker tracked it through the air it appeared to be a routine fly ball for the second out of the inning.
Instead, Johnson got his second three-run home run of the game, accounting for all six of the Buckeyes’ runs after they had been shut out for 8 2/3 innings.
“It is 300 feet (to the fence),” said Waters, who believed Becker could catch the ball no problem. “It went 301.
“Any time you lose the lead in the ninth the wind is taken out of your sails ... We tried to battle. We tried to come back it just wasn’t in the cards today.”
Portland (27-7), which never trailed until the game was final, battled toe-to-toe with Lake Erie, which later went on to win the regional and earn a berth in the NABF World Series.
The game was scoreless until the top of the sixth inning, with Bollenbacher dueling Lake Erie starter Jonathan Sprowls.
Portland had one hit in each of the first five frames but couldn’t bring a base runner around to score. Lake Erie, on the other hand, had a man reach base in the first three innings but didn’t get a hit until there were two outs in the fourth. Bollenbacher found himself in a jam on three separate occasions but got out of the inning unscathed each time.
“He is a bulldog,” Portland manager Randy Miller said. “He is a veteran. He knew when he had to bear down and he did.”
Justin Marrero led off the top of the sixth inning with a seeing-eye double to shallow right field, and after a ground out Alex Delk reached on an error to give Portland runners at the corners.
Kevin Sharp fell behind 0-2 to Sprowls, but ripped the next pitch up the middle as Marrero trotted home from third for the game’s first run.
After TJ Lindstrand hit a single, catcher Chris Miller also had an RBI single to score Delk for a 2-0 Portland lead.
“Bottom of the order came through with some clutch hits,” Miller said. “We bunched it up and had enough to win.”
The cushion energized Bollenbacher, who gave up a double in the seventh to Josh Gaub. A groundout put Gaub on third base with two outs, and Lake Erie’s Jake Plata hit a dribbler down the third base line that Bollenbacher charged, fielded and fired a rocket across the field to Marrero at first in time to preserve his shutout.
Bill Geeslin — he finished 4-for-5 — hit a solo home run in the ninth to put Portland on top 3-0.
Fatigue caught up to Bollenbacher, who pitched three innings in a 10-1 win Saturday afternoon against the Cincinnati Mudcats.
In the bottom of the ninth, Bollenbacher issued a leadoff walk before striking out the Buckeyes’ No. 9 hitter and inducing a pop fly for the second out.
Portland was one pitch away from the championship game, but Gaub extended the inning with a single through the right side to bring up Johnson.
Bollenbacher, who had thrown 153 pitches to that point, fell behind Johnson, who was 0-for-3 with a walk in his first four plate appearances.
The left-handed hitting Johnson blasted Bollenbacher’s 2-1 offering over the fence in center field to tie the game.
“Excruciating,” Miller said of the loss. “We’ve shown that we’re a pretty good ball club. They were a tough opponent, obviously.”
Waters felt the same way.
“We see that we were championship caliber,” the 2002 Jay County High School graduate said. “We feel like we were one of the top two teams (in the regional). It just didn’t play out for us this year.”