By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Shawnee Heights baseball team clawed back from a 7-0 deficit to shock Basehor-Linwood with a 13-9 United Kansas Conference win at Bettis Family Sports Complex Thursday.
Junior Jayden Holly turned in a clutch pitching performance on Thursday as Shawnee Heights baseball rallied from a 7-0 deficit to take a 13-9 UKC win over Basehor-Linwood. [File photo/TSN]
With his team struggling to find itself both at the plate and in the field, junior Jayden Holly entered the game in the fourth inning and gradually got things under control. He worked a perfect fifth inning, which ignited the T-Birds’ fire.
“Holly threw a bunch of strikes for us even when we couldn’t field it for him,” Shawnee Heights coach Ryan Schmidt said. “He just continued working through adversity and throwing strikes and finding ways to get us outs until we could come back and try to do some damage.”
Trailing 7-0 in the bottom of the fifth, the T-Birds started chipping away with three walks and two singles, stealing bases and advancing on wild pitches. Five runs later, there was hope.
“Luckily in the fifth we were able to plate five,” Schmidt said. “We started getting some better at bats, were selective on pitches, and that kind of snowballed in the sixth.”
Holly surrendered two unearned runs in the top of the sixth inning but battled through it to keep the T-Birds within striking distance.
“It was just fastball pretty much, just staying inside, nothing easy, Holly said. “I was just pounding the zone and trusting the defense.”
Trailing 9-5 in the bottom of the sixth, Shawnee Heights rallied for eight runs, punctuated by Jordan Armbruster’s bases-loaded double that gave the T-Birds their first lead.
Schmidt sent Holly back to the mound for the seventh inning to shut the door on Basehor-Linwood. He permitted two baserunners, but started and finished the inning with strikeouts.
“I felt like I had to finish the job. The job's not over when you’ve got the lead,” Holly said. “Thanks to my teammates putting the runs up there, and then trusting me, putting me back out there again. It means a lot, so I just had to finish the job.”
The come-from-behind win lifted the T-Birds to 6-4 on the season. But Tuesday’s victory was not a pattern Schmidt wants to follow.
“That start is kind of like a Groundhog Day-type of thing where we don’t score and we give up three runs to start the game,” Schmidt said. “We kick some balls and can’t refocus. It just kills momentum.
“We’ve been sort of snake bit all year. We’ve hit some balls hard that were caught. But mainly it’s a lack of focus, not taking everything that we work on every day in practice and taking it to the game.
“But we won. We’ll take it.”
SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 13, BASEHOR-LINWOOD 9
Basehor-Linwood (4-4) 302 202 0 — 9 9 1
Shawnee Heights (6-4) 000 058 x — 13 8 6
Torkelson, Zimbleman (5), Martin (6) and Howard. Perez, Holly (4) and Cole, Pomeroy (7). W — Holly. L — Zimbleman. 2B — Basehor-Linwood: Vierthaler, Puderbaugh. Shawnee Heights: Armbruster.
