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Prep Sports

Knights score 8 in fifth to end WFC's season

By Brian Hoxsey
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EUREKA — Heading into the bottom of the fifth inning of Monday's IHSA Eureka Class 2A Regional play-in game between No. 8 seed Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell and No. 7 Fieldcrest, it looked to be a contest that would be tight up until the very last out.

The Knights held a slim 2-0 advantage over the Warriors to that point, and both starting pitchers — Fieldcrest's Derek May and WFC's Collin Hjerpe — were each settled in. However, the Knights were able to quickly load the bases and from there plate eight runs — the final and 10-run rule evoking tally scoring on a Michael Morse double — to end WFC's season and send FHS into Wednesday's 4:30 p.m. semifinal against the top-seeded host Hornets with a 10-0 decision here at Eureka Middle School. The game was originally to be played in Wenona before early morning rains made that field unplayable.

"We were talking as a coaching staff before that inning about if we needed to play for one run, but we decided to let ​them go and see what happens," said Fieldcrest coach Mark Brown. "When you put the bat on the ball, good things can happen and it did for us in the last inning. I liked our approach as a team all game at the plate, we laid off the high stuff and swung at pitches we could handle."

Fieldcrest began the final frame with a Hayden Carls' two-strike single to left, a full-count walk to Morse and an infield single off the glove of Hjerpe by May to load the sacks full of Knights. With the Warriors infield in, Matt Cook hit a grounder to second, but the throw home was in the dirt, allowing the runner to score. Ryan Naas followed with a groundout to shortstop to drive in another run to make it 4-0. Noah Nordstrom then smacked a bounder to third, but again the throw toward home plate was errant. A WFC error and Travis Cook's RBI hit by pitch preceded Zach Moritz's bases-clearing double down the left-field line to push it to 9-0 before Morse finished things off with a drive off of reliever Mason Ewing.

"There were five ground balls there that could have outs," said WFC coach Bubs Hoffman. "Today was a day that things didn't fall our way and it started with a fly ball tearing a hole through our left fielder's glove in the second inning.

"Collin struggled with his control early on, but then he started firing the ball and he looked like the kid that has really been pitching well for us the last couple of weeks."

Fieldcrest (10-12) scored once in each of the first two frames. Matt Cook's run-scoring single, which drove in Morse in the first, and Travis Cook's single to center allowing Nordstrom, who had reach on the aforementioned fly ball to left, to come around and score.

May only needed 53 pitches to earn the win. He gave up just two hits — a single by Hjerpe in the first and a base hit by Ewing in the third — walked none and struck out four.

"Derek was super efficient today and when he was missing with his pitches, he was missing with a purpose," Brown said. "He was pretty locked in and worked quickly. He had a good slider going today and it really set up his fastball. When he is popping the strike zone, our defense is able to stay focused and that makes us field the ball better all the way around."

Hjerpe took the loss despite giving up just four hits, two earned runs, four walks while fanning three in 4 1/3 innings.

"I so proud of these kids,' said Hoffman, his team finishing the season with a 9-12 mark. "We always talk about competing, and we only had a couple of games like this all season. We had some really good games the last few weeks against Marquette and Putnam County. I think they really improved from last year and I think we are a better team than our record this year or how we played today."

​At Eureka
Fieldcrest 10, Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell 0 (5 inn.)
(Key: AB-R-H-RBI)
​WFC (0) — Jenkins 2-0-0-0, Hjerpe p-1b 2-0-1-0, Hillebrenner 1b-lf 2-0-0-0, Sibert c 2-0-0-0, Dodge 3b 2-0-0-0, Simpson lf-cf 2-0-0-0, Albertson dh 2-0-0-0, Redd rf 0-0-0-0, Derossett 2b 1-0-0-0, Ewing cf-p 1-0-1-0. Totals 16-0-2-0.
​FIELDCREST (10) — Carls 2b 2-1-1-0, Morse ss 3-2-1-1, May p 3-1-2-0, M. Cook 1b 3-1-1-2, Naas 3b 3-0-0-1, Nordstrom dh 3-2-0-1, Perry c 0-0-0-0, Allen cf 3-1-0-0, T. Cook lf 2-1-1-2, Moritz rf 2-1-1-3. Totals 24-10-7-10.
​WFC (9-12) 000 00 — 0 2 5
​Fieldcrest (10-12) 110 08 — 10 7 0
​DPT — WFC 1, Fieldcrest 1. LOB — WFC 1, Fieldcrest 5. 2B — Morse, May, Moritz. SB — Morse. HBP — T. Cook (by Hjerpe).
WFC ip r er h bb k
​Hjerpe (L) 4.1 9 2 5 4 3
Ewing 0.1 1 0 2 0 0
Fieldcrest
​May (W) 5.0 0 0 2 0 4
​Two out when winning run scored