Baseball: Ottawa scores 3 runs in 6th to rally past rival La Salle-Peru

LA SALLE – With the Ottawa baseball team trailing rival La Salle-Peru by two runs in the sixth inning, Garrett Shymanski came to the plate with runners on second and third base.

“My first pitch was an inside fastball,” Shymanski said. “I thought he’d come back to it, but he gave me something outside, and I just took it that way. I saw the guy dive, and he missed it. Coach told me to go three.”

With the ball bouncing into the right-field corner, Shymanski raced into third base for a stand-up triple that scored Packston Miller and Jacob Rosetto to tie the game.

“It was great,” Shymanski said. “The guys were pumped up. That’s what means the most.”

Shymanski later scored on a two-out single by Jace Veith for what proved to be the winning run in a 6-5 victory at Huby Sarver Field in the first of a three-game Interstate 8 Conference series.

“Garrett had a nice approach,” Ottawa coach Tyler Wargo said. “His approach is kind of middle of the fieldish. He’s been hitting balls in gaps recently, and it was great to see him rewarded for that.

“When you have guys on second and third, to make sure you have an approach to stay within yourself and make sure the ball is in play, it was great to see. I’m really proud of him and the whole group because we’ve been struggling a little bit, and to get an emotional win against a team like that is pretty special.

“Hopefully it kind of catapults us into the right direction.”

The Pirates (7-12, 2-5 in the I-8) escaped jams in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings to hold on for the win.

Tate Wesbecker came on in relief of winning pitcher Cam Loomis. He walked two of the first three batters he faced, and L-P loaded the bases on a bunt single by Seth Adams with two outs.

On a 3-2 count, Wesbecker got a strikeout to end the sixth.

In the seventh, a walk and two singles loaded the bases again, but Wesbecker once again kept the Cavs off the board with a groundout to first base.

“Tate’s been our staple in the bullpen to make sure things are staying where they’re at,” Wargo said. “Obviously, his command wasn’t super great. He walked a couple guys, and that’s not normally him. The fact he’s able to load the bases twice and get out of it is pretty special for him.

“I’m really proud of the whole group. We had a lot of contributors in a lot of different ways tonight.”

L-P coach Matt Glupczynski said he was pleased with how the Cavs (7-13, 0-7 in the I-8) played despite the loss.

“I thought we played real well,” Glupczynski said. “I thought we were real tough going down early, we fought back. They came back and took the lead, and we fight back. I thought we did a lot of good things. It just didn’t shake out our way in the end.

“We were able to get runners in scoring position those last two innings, and we just couldn’t come up with a big hit. Tomorrow we’ll come back to work and hopefully get the big hit.”

Ottawa took a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI triple by Jack Henson into the right-field corner. The Cavs responded with two runs in the second on RBI singles by Josh Senica and Brady Romagnoli.

L-P and Ottawa traded runs in the third before the Cavs pushed their lead to 5-3 with an RBI single by Jacob Gross in the fifth.

Loomis earned the win for Ottawa. He allowed five runs (two earned) on six hits with six strikeouts and two walks, while Tate threw two scoreless innings, giving up three hits with three strikeouts and three walks to get the save.

Veith, Henson and Jaxon Cooper had two hits each for Ottawa, while Henson and Shymanski each had two RBIs.

Josh Senica was 3 for 3 with two RBIs for L-P, while Seth Adams was 2 for 3 with a pair of runs.

Senica got no-decision, as he allowed three runs on six hits with five strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter in four innings. Brendan Boudreau took the loss in relief.

The Cavs and Pirates play Game 2 at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in La Salle before wrapping up the three-game set at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Ottawa.