Indians repeat as SCOL champions; defeat Tigers in 14 innings
Lead Summary

By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
In the game that seemed to never end, the Hillsboro Indians took over first place in the South Central Ohio League with a two-out bases loaded single by Garrett Bell for a 10-9, 14-inning win over rival McClain at Shaffer Park Tuesday.
HHS now has clinched at least a share of the SCOL title, defending their championship from a season ago.
The game started back up Tuesday in the top of the 10th inning with the score tied 9-9, as the previous nine innings played Wednesday, April 21 were suspended due to darkness.
The bottom of the 14th inning saw Airic Steagall reach the bases by forcing a one-out walk. Then McClain pitcher Jacob Dillon struck out the next batter, putting the Indians down to their final out.
Patrick Garman forced the second walk of the inning, causing the Tigers to change pitchers.
Again, on a 3-2 count, the Indians forced a base on balls with Logan Watson jogging to first to load the bases.
Then with the count in favor of the pitcher, down to his final strike, Bell blasted the ball to center field, allowing Steagall to score the game-winning run. In the process, Bell was bombarded by his teammates following the win.
"I just told the guys at the start what was on the line," HHS head coach Rusty Swackhamer said. "It has been a long time since we have had back-to-back SCOL titles. Today was some of the best baseball I have seen in a long, long time, by both teams."
The hit was redemption for Bell as he was unable to drive runners home in his first at-bat of the game in the 10th inning with the bases loaded, along with two outs.
But Bell not only produced from the plate with late-inning heroics, he also was near perfect from the mound as he pitched three innings on Tuesday. The day before, against Miami Trace, he was the winner as he went seven innings on the hill.
Against the Tigers Tuesday he gave up two hits, with no runs and no walks.
"After pitching Monday for seven innings, Garrett was impressive again with three innings for us," Swackhamer said.
With one SCOL game remaining this coming Friday, the Indians can clinch the outright title with a win over the Washington Blue Lions.
In the first few innings Tuesday, neither team could get their bats going, and the pitching was keeping its opponent off-balanced.
On day two, the first player to reach the bases was Steagall, as he drew a walk in inning No. 10. Paul Snyder followed with an infield single, and the bases were loaded with Watson getting hit by a pitch on a 3-2 count. None of the runners advanced home as the third out was recorded on a strikeout.
In the bottom of the 11th, the Tigers extended the game as they threw out a leaping Carroll at the plate, with senior catcher Caleb Cooper tagging Carroll in mid-air for the innings final out.
In the second day of action, the Tigers had three hits with Barnett, Cooper and Austin Wilson hitting singles.
"We just didn't hit the ball today," MHS head coach Brandon Streitenberger said. "We lost a lot of called third strikes. Credit Hillsboro, Swackhamer's teams always hit the ball hard. HHS beat us twice this year, and they are deserving of the league title. They got timely hits, and we didn't."
The bottom of the 12th saw Logan Wilson double and Carroll gain a base hit.
The win on the hill was credited to Brandon Wilson, who started the game as the catcher for the Indians. Wilson pitched two innings, finishing with three strikeouts. He allowed one hit (a single by Cooper) and walked zero batters.
The loss went to Jacob Dillon. In the second part of the game, he struck out six batters.
"Jake (Dillon) has been a bulldog on the mound all season," Streitenberger said. "He is always around the plate but toward the end just ran out of gas. He has kept us in a lot of games this season."
With the win, HHS improves to 12-6 overall, 8-3 in the SCOL. The Tigers secured no less than second place with an SCOL mark of 7-4, with an overall record of 16-7. They still have a shot at a co-championship in the SCOL as they have one league game remaining with Madison-Plains.
"Starting a game at the top of the 10th inning right off the bus is an unusual situation, but both teams had to deal with that," Streitenberger said. "It was just an odd feeling."
If MHS defeats the Golden Eagles Wednesday and the Indians fall short against the Blue Lions Friday, then the Tigers and Indians will tie for the league title.
BOX SCORE
MHS 201 411 000 000 0 - 9
HHS 430 000 200 000 1 - 10
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