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GOSHEN — The arm and the bat of Goshen senior Bray Hoag and the daring dashing of Concord senior Jordan Flores helped spark the RedHawks and Minutemen into Monday’s Goshen Sectional baseball championship with crisply executed wins Saturday.
Hoag fired a no-hitter and backed his own cause with a run-scoring double and two-run single as the Hawks blanked Elkhart 7-0 in the second semifinal.
That came after Flores — with the help of an error — scored all the way from first base on Mark Herman’s beauty of a bunt as Concord grabbed a 3-2, eight-inning, walk-off win over Northridge.
Both the Minutemen (18-8) and Goshen (21-6) played errorless ball, while their opponents each committed three miscues, those differences proving pivotal.
Monday’s 6 p.m. final between Concord (18-8) and the defending champion Hawks (21-6) will be the third meeting of the clubs this spring. Goshen won the previous two, 4-0 and 9-3.
The Lions closed 12-16 and the Raiders 12-15.
CONCORD 3, NORTHRIDGE 2
Fleet-footed Flores led off the bottom of the eighth by reaching on a grounder to third that was officially ruled an error, though his speed clearly caused the defender to rush the throw.
Then Herman — who earlier in the game had popped out on a sacrifice attempt — dropped a sweet slice of redemption down the third base line, beating the third baseman’s toss for a single.
Flores, seeing that third was left vacated on the play, never hesitated while rounding second on the play. The first baseman’s throw back to his still retreating third baseman sailed wide, allowing Flores to score.
“I was waving him (to come to third),” Concord coach Greg Hughes said of Flores, “but he had already seen it. We talk about that in practice. When we draw that guy in, if no one’s (covering), you just keep going, and he did it perfectly.”
The Minutemen prevailed in the lone extra inning after both starting pitchers, Concord senior Myles Jones and Raider junior Preston Ryan, had mostly stifled the opposition through the seven frames that each worked.
Jones was one out from a 2-1 win before Northridge’s Lucas Eash lined a game-tying single to left-center driving in the tying run.
“That was just a fantastic at-bat,” Raider coach Chad Gerard said. “We haven’t had a lot of hits like that in clutch situations, but Lucas really came through there.”
So did Ryan all day, on the mound and at the plate, despite his team’s loss. Both runs off the righty were unearned thanks to a fifth-inning error. He allowed just three hits and one walk while striking out six. As a batter, he singled to set up the game’s first run and drew a pair of walks.
“Preston was outstanding,” Gerard said. “He threw strikes all day, kept hitters in check. It’s a shame to pitch that well and not get a win.”
Jones yielded two runs, working around five hits, four walks and a hit batsman to strand eight runners, before sophomore Drake Weatherholt earned the win with a scoreless eighth despite hitting the first batter he faced.
A sacrifice attempt by the next hitter was pounced on quickly by Minutemen third baseman Derek Gomez, who fired to second to nail the lead runner. Northridge then opted for a second straight sacrifice and executed that one, but at the expense of the second out, before Weatherholt got the third on a routine fly.
“Aggressive baserunning was the key for us today,” said Hughes, whose club went 4-for-4 on stolen bases and saw its two-run fifth inning assisted by a throwing error that came when Bryce Outlaw assertively broke from second to third on a grounder to shortstop, drawing a throw.
“It’s not a bad decision, it’s a bad throw,” Gerard said of the one-out play, “and that’s OK, because if the throw’s there, the guy’s out.”
Outlaw proceeded to score on the play for a 1-1 tie, then after the second out, Flores singled in the go-ahead run.
GOSHEN 7, ELKHART 0
Hoag, getting stronger as the game went longer, looked like he could’ve continued indefinitely, but he happily settled for continuing the Hawks’ season.
He capped his masterpiece with several electric seventh-inning breaking balls while striking out the side. He retired the final 10 hitters in all, after a somewhat uneven beginning in which he walked three batters and hit another over the first 3.2 innings.
“He needs to start throwing about 60 bullpen pitches before the game, so he’s ready to go,” Goshen’s JJ DuBois joked of Hoag after earning his 100th career coaching win.
Hoag’s no-hitter was his second of the season, the other coming April 23 at Mishawaka.
“I didn’t really seriously start thinking about it until like the fifth inning when we were batting and going into the sixth,” Hoag said about the possibility of this one. “I was like, if I get past these three hitters, three stronger hitters (in the 1-2-3 spots), the next three should be easier.”
The righty struck out eight and closed at 103 pitches.
“My curve was working really well,” Hoag said, “and I noticed in the first inning the umpire had a really open zone, so I was just trying not to throw anything near the (middle), just keep everything outside.”
At the plate, Hoag added an RBI double in the second inning to score Bryson Wilson, who had also doubled, for a 2-0 lead, then delivered a two-run single up the middle in the fifth to cap a five-run outburst that made the score 7-0.
It was way more support than Hoag needed on the mound, some of that support aided by the Lions.
Five of the Hawks’ seven runs were unearned. Besides its three errors, Elkhart gave up four walks, three hit batsmen and a run-scoring balk.
“They scored seven runs, and six of those were on base from an error, hit by pitch or walk,” Lions coach Scott Rost said. “You can’t win baseball games like that.”
Elkhart entered the day on a season-high five-game winning streak.
“We did get a little better toward the end of the season,” Rost said, “but obviously, we weren’t good enough today. Goshen’s a very good, very well-coached team, but our Achilles’ heel the whole year was free bases, and with the exception of a couple guys, our approach at the plate today was really bad.”
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GOSHEN SECTIONALCONCORD 3, NORTHRIDGE 2(8 innings)
Northridge;100;000;10;—;2;5;3
Concord;000;020;01;—3;4;0
Preston Ryan, Mason Zimmerman (8; L, 3-4); Myles Jones, Drake Weatherholt (8; W, 4-1).
Northridge: Hits — Colt Bollinger 2.
Concord: Hits — Rennye Davila 2.
Records: Concord 18-8, Northridge 12-15.
GOSHEN 7, ELKHART 0
Elkhart;000;000;0;—;0;0;3
Goshen;110;050;x;—7;5;0
Max Shreiner (L, 2-3), Trevor Hilliard (5); Bray Hoag (W, 5-2; 8 strikeouts).
Goshen: Hits — Bryson Wilson 2, Hoag 2. 2B — Wilson, Hoag. RBI — Hoag 3. Runs — Spencer Elliott 2.
Records: Goshen 21-6, Elkhart 12-16.
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Hoag fired a no-hitter and backed his own cause with a run-scoring double and two-run single as the Hawks blanked Elkhart 7-0 in the second semifinal.
That came after Flores — with the help of an error — scored all the way from first base on Mark Herman’s beauty of a bunt as Concord grabbed a 3-2, eight-inning, walk-off win over Northridge.
Both the Minutemen (18-8) and Goshen (21-6) played errorless ball, while their opponents each committed three miscues, those differences proving pivotal.
Monday’s 6 p.m. final between Concord (18-8) and the defending champion Hawks (21-6) will be the third meeting of the clubs this spring. Goshen won the previous two, 4-0 and 9-3.
The Lions closed 12-16 and the Raiders 12-15.
CONCORD 3, NORTHRIDGE 2
Fleet-footed Flores led off the bottom of the eighth by reaching on a grounder to third that was officially ruled an error, though his speed clearly caused the defender to rush the throw.
Then Herman — who earlier in the game had popped out on a sacrifice attempt — dropped a sweet slice of redemption down the third base line, beating the third baseman’s toss for a single.
Flores, seeing that third was left vacated on the play, never hesitated while rounding second on the play. The first baseman’s throw back to his still retreating third baseman sailed wide, allowing Flores to score.
“I was waving him (to come to third),” Concord coach Greg Hughes said of Flores, “but he had already seen it. We talk about that in practice. When we draw that guy in, if no one’s (covering), you just keep going, and he did it perfectly.”
The Minutemen prevailed in the lone extra inning after both starting pitchers, Concord senior Myles Jones and Raider junior Preston Ryan, had mostly stifled the opposition through the seven frames that each worked.
Jones was one out from a 2-1 win before Northridge’s Lucas Eash lined a game-tying single to left-center driving in the tying run.
“That was just a fantastic at-bat,” Raider coach Chad Gerard said. “We haven’t had a lot of hits like that in clutch situations, but Lucas really came through there.”
So did Ryan all day, on the mound and at the plate, despite his team’s loss. Both runs off the righty were unearned thanks to a fifth-inning error. He allowed just three hits and one walk while striking out six. As a batter, he singled to set up the game’s first run and drew a pair of walks.
“Preston was outstanding,” Gerard said. “He threw strikes all day, kept hitters in check. It’s a shame to pitch that well and not get a win.”
Jones yielded two runs, working around five hits, four walks and a hit batsman to strand eight runners, before sophomore Drake Weatherholt earned the win with a scoreless eighth despite hitting the first batter he faced.
A sacrifice attempt by the next hitter was pounced on quickly by Minutemen third baseman Derek Gomez, who fired to second to nail the lead runner. Northridge then opted for a second straight sacrifice and executed that one, but at the expense of the second out, before Weatherholt got the third on a routine fly.
“Aggressive baserunning was the key for us today,” said Hughes, whose club went 4-for-4 on stolen bases and saw its two-run fifth inning assisted by a throwing error that came when Bryce Outlaw assertively broke from second to third on a grounder to shortstop, drawing a throw.
“It’s not a bad decision, it’s a bad throw,” Gerard said of the one-out play, “and that’s OK, because if the throw’s there, the guy’s out.”
Outlaw proceeded to score on the play for a 1-1 tie, then after the second out, Flores singled in the go-ahead run.
GOSHEN 7, ELKHART 0
Hoag, getting stronger as the game went longer, looked like he could’ve continued indefinitely, but he happily settled for continuing the Hawks’ season.
He capped his masterpiece with several electric seventh-inning breaking balls while striking out the side. He retired the final 10 hitters in all, after a somewhat uneven beginning in which he walked three batters and hit another over the first 3.2 innings.
“He needs to start throwing about 60 bullpen pitches before the game, so he’s ready to go,” Goshen’s JJ DuBois joked of Hoag after earning his 100th career coaching win.
Hoag’s no-hitter was his second of the season, the other coming April 23 at Mishawaka.
“I didn’t really seriously start thinking about it until like the fifth inning when we were batting and going into the sixth,” Hoag said about the possibility of this one. “I was like, if I get past these three hitters, three stronger hitters (in the 1-2-3 spots), the next three should be easier.”
The righty struck out eight and closed at 103 pitches.
“My curve was working really well,” Hoag said, “and I noticed in the first inning the umpire had a really open zone, so I was just trying not to throw anything near the (middle), just keep everything outside.”
At the plate, Hoag added an RBI double in the second inning to score Bryson Wilson, who had also doubled, for a 2-0 lead, then delivered a two-run single up the middle in the fifth to cap a five-run outburst that made the score 7-0.
It was way more support than Hoag needed on the mound, some of that support aided by the Lions.
Five of the Hawks’ seven runs were unearned. Besides its three errors, Elkhart gave up four walks, three hit batsmen and a run-scoring balk.
“They scored seven runs, and six of those were on base from an error, hit by pitch or walk,” Lions coach Scott Rost said. “You can’t win baseball games like that.”
Elkhart entered the day on a season-high five-game winning streak.
“We did get a little better toward the end of the season,” Rost said, “but obviously, we weren’t good enough today. Goshen’s a very good, very well-coached team, but our Achilles’ heel the whole year was free bases, and with the exception of a couple guys, our approach at the plate today was really bad.”
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GOSHEN SECTIONALCONCORD 3, NORTHRIDGE 2(8 innings)
Northridge;100;000;10;—;2;5;3
Concord;000;020;01;—3;4;0
Preston Ryan, Mason Zimmerman (8; L, 3-4); Myles Jones, Drake Weatherholt (8; W, 4-1).
Northridge: Hits — Colt Bollinger 2.
Concord: Hits — Rennye Davila 2.
Records: Concord 18-8, Northridge 12-15.
GOSHEN 7, ELKHART 0
Elkhart;000;000;0;—;0;0;3
Goshen;110;050;x;—7;5;0
Max Shreiner (L, 2-3), Trevor Hilliard (5); Bray Hoag (W, 5-2; 8 strikeouts).
Goshen: Hits — Bryson Wilson 2, Hoag 2. 2B — Wilson, Hoag. RBI — Hoag 3. Runs — Spencer Elliott 2.
Records: Goshen 21-6, Elkhart 12-16.
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