Oran rallies back to earn walk-off win over Scott City

sports@standard-democrat.com

ORAN -- For the first five innings not much went right for the Oran Eagles.

While hosting Scott City, Oran saw a handful of errors on top of early struggles at the plate lead to a four run deficit heading into the bottom of the sixth on Wednesday.

Capped by a walk off single from junior Jacob Priggel, however, the Eagles scored five unanswered runs in the final two innings to down the Rams 7-6 and move over the .500 mark on the season.

"That's not exactly how we drew it up, but we'll take them anyway we can get them," Oran head coach Kody Campbell said. "I told my kids after the game baseball is crazy like that. They could have easily folded and thrown in the towel when it was 6-2 in the sixth, but we kept fighting and putting together competitive at bats.

"We got a few breaks in the last couple innings and we were fortunate enough to come out with a win."

With his team trailing 6-2, senior Dustin Gebhardt got things started for the Eagles in the sixth frame by reaching on an infield error. He came around to score on a Seth Ressel sacrifice fly before Ben Heuring singled in Preston Hahn from second base.

An RBI single from Hunter Schlossar closed Oran within a run and soon after they'd have the bases loaded with two outs.

Taking a 3-1 offering, Tanner McVay drew a ball to force in the tying run from third to tie the game at 6-6.

The Eagles came close to taking the first lead of the contest in the next at bat, but a hard hit grounder to third base was bobbled before being collected for a force out to end the threat.

After Hahn, pitching in relief, held the Rams (3-5) scoreless in the top of the seventh, the Eagles (4-3) came back to the plate with the bottom of their order up. A strikeout to their No. 8 hitter was followed up by a misplayed grounder from Hahn up the third base side to put the winning runner on first.

Ressel drew a walk on four straight balls and a Heuring bunt moved the two runners to second and third with two outs. Next up to bat, Priggel made good on Heuring's bunt with a choppy grounder to the shortstop deep in the hole.

With Hahn taking off from third to home, a clean throw from short to first appeared to find the fielder's glove at the same time Priggel found the bag. The umpire ruled safe on the play after Hahn had already crossed the plate to leave Priggel with a walk-off single and Oran the win.

"It was a definitely a bang-bang play," Campbell said. "I really wasn't watching the play at first. I was worried about my guy from second getting to third so they couldn't have an easy force out there. By the time I got my head back around to first he was already through the bag. I just saw the umpire call him safe.

"From everyone I talked to, they said it was the right call. I don't know much about, but we'll take them anyway we can get them."

Along with a good hit from Priggel, Campbell credits Hahn with coming through at the bottom of the order. The sophomore went 1 for 3 in the contest with a double and three runs scored while reaching base in 3 of 4 appearances.

"That's kind of the reason we have him down there," Campbell said. "If you've seen us play at all or know anything about him you know he's not a nine hole hitter. We put him down there for that reason, to have some guys on base when the top of our order comes up. We feel like if we can get him on, then Seth is a good hitter and he can get on. Then we have the guys in the middle that have a chance to drive in some runs"

By the time they came to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, trailing 6-2, the Eagles had seen several opportunities slip by to come back on Scott City.

This included the fifth frame when they had runners on second and third with one out, but only managed to plate one run before Scott City starter Braden Cox escaped the jam. The run closed the Eagles back within a run, 3-2, of the Rams only to see Scott City score three runs in the top of the sixth.

It was Priggel's walk off single in the seventh that oran took their first lead of the night as run in the third had put the Rams in control from the early stages.

"I just knew I had to put the ball on the ground," Priggel said of his last at bat. "I needed to put it in play and I did. I hustled down and tried the best I could to get there. We started off (the game) well, but then we came out and batted the ball around a little bit. We got down a couple runs, but we battled back."

Scott City 001 203 0 - 6 10 5

Oran 000 114 1 - 7 8 3

WP -- Preston Hahn. LP -- Jordan Kluesner. Multiple hitters: (SC) Braden Cox 2-4, Menz 2-4; (O) Hunter Schlosser 2-3, Ben Heuring 2-3. 2B -- (SC) Eric Urhahn; (O) Dustin Gebhardt, Hahn.