Published: July 18, 2008 12:40 am            

Jeff/GRC takes advantage of second chances

Beats Greenwood in extra innings

It’s rare when a player gets a chance to get redemption in the same baseball game.

Hayden Robb and Chandler Dale got theirs in one inning.

Robb hit the first pitch of extra innings out of the ball park, Dale shut down Greenwood in the bottom of the seventh to give Jeffersonville/GRC an 8-6 win.

The win puts Jeff one game away from next week’s state finals at Highland Little League.

But it was a win that almost got away.

Jeffersonville led 6-1 after four innings and 6-4 after five. In the sixth, Robb had a key throwing error — on what appeared might be the game-ending double play — that allowed a Greenwood run to score, then Dale allowed the first batter he faced to single home the tying run.

Robb’s blast over the center field fence off of Nick Ramey — Greenwood’s fifth pitcher — gave Jeff a 7-6 lead and Jeff tacked on an insurance when Ben Shahroudi doubled home Josh Burke, who singled following Robb’s homer.

Dale then threw three ground ball outs to preserve the victory.

“It was very cool becuase I made that overthrow and we needed to score a run,” Robb said of his first home run of the All-Star tournament.

“Hayden is a mentally strong kid. It’s baseball,” Jeff coach Derek Ellis said. “One just got away from him. He made all of the other plays all night. Unfortunately in baseball, some get away from you, but to come back leading off and hitting the ball out of the ball park, it shows just how strong and mentally tough that kid is.”

Jeff took the lead on the first batter of the game.

Austin Hines, who Ellis called “the fastest kid in Southern Indinana, doubled between center and right field. When the incoming throw went over the second baseman’s head, Hines went to third. Hines then noticed that no one was covering home plate and sprinted home for the first run of the game.

“Austin’s just a great athlete,” Ellis said. “He has a great athletic sense — whether it’s baseball or basketball or football — about him. He’s very intense and he always knows what’s going on around him. I didn’t tell him to go. He noticed that the catcher was loafing back and the pitcher had his head turned. He was just gone.”

The next batter, Drew Ellis, homered over the right-center fence and Jeff had a 2-0 lead.

After starting pitcher Dalton Duly gave up a run in the first, Jeff counted in the third. After Ellis was intentionally walked, Robb was hit by a pitch on an 0-2 count. After Burke drew a walk to load the bases, Ellis made it 3-1 when he scored on a wild pitch.

It looked as if Jeff put the game away with three-run fourth inning. Hines singled with one out to get things started again.

Greenwood then attempted to intentionally walk Ellis again. However, after receiving three balls, Ellis swung at two pitches out of the strike zone.

Greenwood then decided to pitch to Ellis and Landon Fink hit the inside corner for strike three.

Dale and Duly had his back. Both hit blasts over the center field fence to give Jeff a 6-1 lead.

“The strategy all along is that if he’s going to be intentionally walked, we’re going to go ahead and swing at a couple and run their pitch counts up. The guys behind him coming up and hitting the ball out of the ball park makes the decision a little harder (for opposing coaches). We’re a good hitting ball club from top to bottom.”

Greenwood then scored three runs in the fifth inning on just one hit. Over the fifth and sixth innings, Duly and Ellis combined to walk seven Greenwood batters.

“Our pitching needs to step it up,” Coach Ellis said. “When you give up (four) hits and have to go seven innings because of walks and wild pitches. We have got to throw strikes. That’s been our key from district to now. If we don’t throw strikes and we throw it to the back stop, anyone can play with us, and Greenwood is a very good team. They put the ball in play.”

Even going into extra innings, Robb and his teammates were confident they’d pull out the victory.

“Our team gets it together when (our backs are against the wall),” he said. “Whenever we’re (in that situation), everyone knows how to step up and do their job.”

The two teams will continue their best of three series Friday at Jeffersonville’s Woehrle Field.

        

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