By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
After falling 6-5 in game one, Silver Lake baseball responded in game two with a 13-12 victory over Big East League foe Nemaha Central Thursday at Silver Lake.
Eagle sophomore Jaxton Ross secured the win with a throw from left field to gun down the runner from second, halting a potential tie game in the nightcap.
“Jax is one of the hardest workers that we have,” Silver Lake coach Tyler Seele said. “He gets to practice early, stays late, he does all the right things and funny how it works, we had one of our starting outfielders out of town and this was his chance tonight. I'm very proud of him.
"Not even just the throw, all night he had good at bats, a couple RBI base hits and made a couple great plays in that first game in the outfield, a couple plays here in the outfield in that second game and then the throw was on the money. I'm super happy for him because he's earned that moment. I’m very proud of him.”
“When I saw the ball coming towards me, I knew it was my one time to make a play and I made it,” Ross said. “It felt really great, celebrated with all my teammates, it felt really good.”
Silver Lake jumped out to a 6-1 lead after three innings in game two. Dayne Johnson had a two RBI double in the bottom half of the first and the Eagles scratched across four more via the sac fly or scoring on passed balls.
But then the Thunder roared back to reclaim the lead 7-6 after a six-run fourth inning where Silver Lake made a pitching change to hopefully stop the bleeding a little bit, bringing in Miles Kibbe replacing starter Rylan Young.
Seele then made two pitching changes in the fifth but Nemaha Central mustered just one run, as Silver Lake struggled finding the strike zone in both games.
The Eagles rallied themselves in the bottom of the fifth, scoring five runs as senior Drew Womack brought in three of those five runs on a three-run double.
The Thunder wouldn’t go away, trimming their deficit to just one after a two-RBI double from Charlie Rottinghaus.
The Eagles responded and got those two runs back, Womack again in the clutch with a two-RBI double, pushing the score to 13-10. He also homered in game one to start the scoring for Silver Lake in that eventual loss. He finished with six RBI in game two.
Nemaha Central made it interesting again in the top of the seventh, scoring a run on a sac fly after beginning the inning with two singles.
With two outs, Kendal Berman, shot one into left field, one run scores making it 13-12 but Ross jumped to play the hop on the turf and threw a rocket to home plate on a bounce in time to tag the runner out at home to secure the win.
His teammates mobbed him by third base afterwards.
“Making the biggest play so far for our team and there’s nothing much that I could ask for except that big win,” Ross said.
“That game right there has kind of been a microcosm of our season so far,'' Seele said. "Our guys have been resilient all year. I think we have five wins now and all five of our wins we've been down at some point in the game. Our fight is great right now, we compete at the plate, we're very aggressive at the plate, we're going to get up there and swing it.
"There are a lot of things we have to clean up defensively so we don't get ourselves into those situations, but the one thing I am proud of was how we continue to battle in those up and down games. Really proud of how we battled and ultimately found a way to win.''
GAME 1
NEMAHA CENTRAL 6, SILVER LAKE 5
Nemaha Central 014 010 0 -- 6 7 1
Silver Lake 100 300 1 -- 5 4 1
W -- Macke L -- Ki. Kruger 2B – Nemaha Central: Haverkamp, Heinen. Silver Lake: Johnson
HR – Silver Lake: Womack.
GAME 2
SILVER LAKE 13, NEMAHA CENTRAL 12
Nemaha Central (4-2) 100 612 2 -- 12 9 1
Silver Lake (5-2) 231 052 x -- 13 15 1
W -- Womack L -- Rottinghaus. 2B -- Nemaha Central: Rottinghaus. Silver Lake: Johnson, Womack 2.
