By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
Silver Lake played small ball to create just enough runs to walk off both ends of a doubleheader with Rossville, winning 11-10 and 8-7 Monday night at Silver Lake.
Silver Lake's Logan Cathcart set up a walkoff win for the Eagles in Monday's 11-10 first-game win with a seventh-inning triple. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Silver Lake's Dysen Schooler (7) and Logan Cathcart (9) celebrate the Eagles' walkoff 11-10 first-game win over rival Rossville. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
After watching a lead slip away in the first game, the Eagles found themselves in a 10-9 hole in the bottom of the seventh inning. Silver Lake’s Logan Cathcart followed up a Blake Redmond single with a blast to center. The ball glanced off the glove of the fielder who lunged to make the game-ending catch. Cathcart raced to third with a triple.
“I just knew (the Rossville pitcher) was going to come first-pitch fastball and I just had to sit on it and take advantage of it,” Cathcart said. “Once I saw it get by the centerfielder, I just knew I had to get three (bases).”
The junior then danced on the path between third and home, waiting for a pitch to elude the catcher. The opportunity arose, and Cathcart slid across the plate just ahead of a throw to the pitcher who covered home.
“Coach was saying ‘Get ready for the passed ball and be on your toes,’” Cathcart said. “As soon as I saw it get passed (the catcher) I knew I wasn’t going to stop. I had to score.”
“The biggest thing was our resiliency,” Silver Lake coach Tyler Seele said. “It was back and forth, back and forth. Rossville did a good job responding, and I thought every time, we responded right back. It wasn’t always the prettiest. We kind of kicked the ball around a little bit. Our pitchers weren’t on top of hitters like we usually are.”
Perhaps still amped up from the walk-off, the Eagles found themselves in a big hole in the second contest. They trailed 7-2 in the bottom half of the sixth inning. Silver Lake pecked away for two runs, but still trailed 7-4 for their last at bat. But with the thrill of the previous comeback still fresh in their memories, the Eagles started scratching away at the deficit. A couple of walks, a couple of hit batsmen and a couple of Rossville errors loaded the bases in a 7-7 tie.
It was déjà vu all over again.
Senior Brett Hinck was poised for another pitch to go to the backstop. When it did, he bolted for home, this time without a play at the plate.
“One of our best attributes this year is we have got a lot of speed,” Seele said. “When we get on the base paths, since we’re good at it, we talk all the time about using baserunning as a weapon. We’re always talking about taking the extra base. There’s going to be times where we’re going to get out doing that, but we want to be aggressive and force the other team to make plays to beat us.”
Winning two walk-offs in such dramatic fashion boosted the Eagles’ confidence, Cathcart said.
“We want to win every single game, so coming out knowing we can get the bats going in the bottom of the seventh and come out with (two victories) feels great,” the sophomore said.
Silver Lake improved to 6-2 with the sweep.
“We have a younger, more inexperienced group, but we’re getting better every day,” Seele said. “These guys are a lot of fun to be around. They’ve got a ton of energy. We’ve been preaching every day ‘Compete on every pitch, no matter what the score is, no matter what happened the pitch before. (These games were) a great example of that.”
Although they tried not to overemphasize the rivalry, the Eagles were particularly happy to take two from the school just a few miles up Highway 24.
“Whenever we play against Rossville, there’s always a little bit of extra juice involved. Kids are amped up for it,” Seele said. “But we tried to approach it this week as ‘It’s the biggest game because it’s the next game on our schedule.’ I thought the guys did a good job of locking in on that and not making it too big of a deal.
GAME ONE
SILVER LAKE 11, ROSSVILLE 10
Rossville 200 204 2 — 10 4 3
Silver Lake 230 022 2 — 11 9 5
C. Horak, C. Bush (6) and S. Cunningham, J. Cunningham (5). Hinck, Barnes (4) and Campidilli. W — Barnes. L — C. Bush. 2B — Silver Lake: Renfro, Schooler. Triple — Silver Lake: Cathcart.
GAME TWO
SILVER LAKE 8, ROSSVILLE 7
Rossville (4-4) 003 121 0 — 7 4 2
Silver Lake (6-2) 200 002 4 — 8 5 2
Kufahl, Miller (5) and J. Cunningham. Cathcart, Martin, Schooler (5), Barnes (7) and Campidilli. W — Barnes. L — Miller. 2B — Silver Lake: Schooler. Triple — Silver Lake: Renfro.
