Baseball: Hall rallies to capture sectional crown

KNOXVILLE – The Hall baseball season could be summed up in one afternoon Saturday at Knoxville High School: It was full of ups and downs.

The Red Devils gave up a grand slam in the first inning and fell behind 6-1 after three innings and 7-3 after five innings in Saturday’s Class 2A Knoxville Sectional championship before rallying for a dramatic 12-7 victory over Sherrard.

They rallied for seven runs on four hits in the sixth inning to take a 10-7 lead, and Kyler Lapp and Joel Koch hit back-to-back home runs in the top of the seventh to put the finishing touches on Hall’s second sectional championship in school history.

“Never gave up. We were down 4-(1). Came back from big lead, put up seven. From there, we just went on.”

—  Ashton Pecher, Hall senior

“We’ll run you through the whole gamut of emotions,” Hall coach Tom Keegan. “Obviously the first inning, [we] couldn’t keep them off the bases, couldn’t get the outs and they went big fly on us. Put a 4 spot on us.

“Thank God for [Ashton] Pecher. I know they scored off him, but they were sticks, instead of crooked numbers. And that was big for us until we could get our offense going.”

The Red Devils, who fell behind 2-0 in the regional championship last week against Riverdale, knew they just had to keep fighting.

“It feels great. First regional, now sectional. It feels awesome,” said the senior Pecher, who pitched 5.2 innings in relief for the win. “Never gave up. We were down 4(-1). Came back from big lead, put up seven. From there, we just went on.”

“I knew we could do it. Just had to chop back. That one big inning we had, seven runs in one inning, it’s going to win games,” Koch said.

“The key is to keep your head up, keep fighting and chipping away. We’ve done it all season.”

The Red Devils (23-8) advance to Monday’s Class 2A Geneseo Supersectional to face Joliet Catholic (22-8-1) at 11 a.m. The Hilltoppers beat Chicago Christian, 10-0, in six innings to win its own sectional.

“It feels good to win our first sectional in a few years,” said Hall first baseman Dom Galletti, who had a key two-run double.

Evan Stefaniak, the No. 9 hitter, started Hall’s sixth-inning rally with a one-out single and Mac Resetich walked. Holland Anderson relieved Sherrard starter Maddux Harksen and promptly hit Ashton Pecher with a pitch.

Lapp drew a bases-loaded walk to bring home Stefaniak. Then the fun really started.

Max Bryant drove in one run with a hit to left and Peyton Dye beat out an infield hit to plate another. Two more runs scored on a Sherrard error on a grounder to short stop with Jack Curran running through Keegan’s stop sign, but sliding in safely on a high throw to home.

Galletti roped a two-run double down the left field to cap the seven-run rally for a 10-7 lead.

“It felt good. That’s the first time I’ve hit this postseason,” Galletti said.

Lapp hit a solo shot to left field with two outs in the seventh and Koch liked it so much, he followed with a blast to center to make it 12-7. Koch said he was just following coach’s orders.

“Keegan pulled me over and said, ‘First pitch fastball, swing as hard as you can,’” Koch said. “That’s what I did. I even let out a little grunt. Everything I had, I swung. And it carried.”

“He’s the John Daly of the batter’s box. Grip it and rip it,” Keegan said.

Sherrard (25-7) made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh. Anderson led off with a single off Pecher, Aiden Switzer walked and Sam Crownover singled to load the bases.

Keegan summoned sophomore lefty Izzaq Zrust in relief of Pecher. He showed all the poise of a seasoned veteran, striking out Caiden Gawley and induced Izaac Novitske to hit into a game-ending double play.

The Red Devils made a believer out of Keegan.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen when we got down. These guys, what can you say?” he said.

Pecher relieved Bryant, the starter in the first, and steadied a sinking ship, striking out 10 batters over 5.2 innings, allowing two runs on 11 hits.

“Holding a few zeroes there, even just a couple 1s, just keeping them low after that 4. It was huge,” Koch said.

Resetich got Hall started with a bang with a lead-off triple and scored on a sac fly by Pecher to center field.

Bryant struggled with his control, walking the first three Sherrard batters of the game. He caught clean-up man Broch DeHamer looking, but Anderson cleaned up with a grand slam to left and Sherrard suddenly led 4-1.

DeHamer came through with a RBI double in the second inning to stretch Sherrard’s lead to 5-1. The Tigers added another run in the third inning on two hits and two errors on one play to go up 6-1.

Stefaniak had a two-out double in the fourth and scored on a balk.

Bryant followed a leadoff walk to Lapp in the fifth with a RBI double to draw Hall within 6-3.

Lapp, Bryant, Dye and Stefaniak each two hits each for Hall.