Published: May 07, 2008 03:56 pm            

Finding a way to win

OLIVE HILL - The West Carter baseball matchup with visiting Rose Hill on Monday had some of everything. It had base hits, fly balls, errors (lots of errors), good defense, bad swings, pretty good pitching and drama (waayyyy too much drama!).

And ultimately, the regional contest included a Comet victory.

“We should’ve beaten them more than this,” West Carter first baseman Matt Logan told The Journal-Times of the ultimate 6-5 win that saw the locals hold leads of 3-1 and 5-4 before Brad Vanlandingham’s game-winning RBI-single off the right-center fence in the bottom of the seventh inning.

“And all their runs were unearned because we had too many errors.”

In spite of the boots, bobbles and just plain ugly plays, West Carter (6-15) was able to grit out the win.

Freshman ace Drew Oney went the distance from the mound, scattering seven hits, two walks and three strikeouts over the seven-inning win.

We had a lot of mental errors but it really feels good to get the win,” Oney said. “And once we got those bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, it was good to have Brad at the plate.”

Leading 5-4 with two outs in the top of the seventh, the sixth West Carter error allowed another unearned Rose Hill run to score, tying things at 5.

Here’s where much of the drama started…

The next Royal batter, with runners on second and third, argued a strike call and was tossed from the game. The first from the third-base dugout to be ejected. An assistant coach then came out onto the field – and he got tossed, too.

With a 1-2 count, Rose Hill had to enter a different player into the batter’s box and a watched third strike brought West Carter back to the plate and cranked up the Royals’ frustration.

Facing the third Rose Hill pitcher (the Royals would send a total of five hurlers to the mound), Tyler Stevens led off the last-half of the seventh with a walk on four straight out-of-the-zone pitches. David Valdepena was up next and he too boarded on balls. Logan worked out of an 0-2 hole for another walk, but Stevens was thrown out trying to advance. Corey Oney smacked a shot at third and got to first on the error, stuffing the bases with Comets for Vanlandingham.

On the first pitch he faced from that fifth Royal pitcher, Vanlandingham swatted the delivery into deep right-center and Valdepena stomped the plate on the game-winning play.

“I just wanted a base hit, all we needed was that one run to win it,” Vanlandingham said. “When I got up to bat, I wasn’t thinking about all our errors – I just kept all that out of my head. But errors can certainly cause you to lose, or win, a game.”

The hard-hitting third baseman led the Comets with three of the club’s nine hits. Stevens, Valdepena, Logan, Corey Oney, Stephen Carroll and Drew Oney each sent one hit through the Rose Hill defense in the win.

“We can play better and beat better teams,” Logan said. “But we have to focus, communicate better and we still need to bat better, too.”

After the handshake line, more verbal back-and-forth between the Rose Hill players and the umpires seemed to lead to even more ejections that would impact the next Royal contests.

Look for more Comet, and Raider, baseball coverage in next week’s sports section.

        

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