Ottawa rallies for 12-10 victory over La Salle-Peru

OTTAWA — Down two runs with two on in the bottom of the sixth, Ottawa junior Adam Swanson was looking “dead red” as he stepped into the batter’s box against La Salle-Peru relief pitcher Kyle Rios.

“I went into that at-bat hunting for a fastball no matter what until two strikes,” Swanson said. “The first pitch was a slow curve for a called strike, and I just knew the next pitch was going to be a fastball. That said, I didn’t want to do too much, just hit the ball hard in the middle of the field.”

What Swanson did was blast a 3-run homer well over the fence in left field to give the Pirates one-run lead.

“I was able to put a good swing on it and lift it a little bit. I knew it was gone the second I hit it. Pretty awesome feeling.”

Ottawa then added a two-out, two-run single by Jacob Rosetto later in the frame and eventually secured a 12-10 Interstate 8 Conference win.

Ottawa (11-11, 3-5) trailed 8-0 to L-P (11-10, 3-5) heading to the bottom of the fifth.

“It was a tough first four innings for sure,” Ottawa coach Levi Ericson. “We just weren’t able to get anything going. But then we started to get a little momentum in the fifth and it just carried over into the sixth. Then Adam comes up in that spot and I thought to myself, ‘This is the moments this kid is designed for.’

Ericson had high praise for the work of relief guys of George Shumway (1⅔ IP), Noah Marvin (2 IP), Brody Pagakis (Win, ⅓ IP) and Colt Bryson (Save, 1 IP, 1 K)

“The first thing I said in the postgame talk was credit to our bullpen,” Ericson said. “As a coach this isn’t what you plan for, but our relief guys came in and did a great job of keeping things within reach for us to be able to come back.”

La Salle-Peru led 3-0 after one on an RBI double by Kaedin Bond and RBI singles by Braylin Bond and Jett Hill. The Cavs added two in the second on RBI hits by Kaedin Bond and Braylin Bond. Then in the third tacked on three more on an RBI hit by Jackson Piecha, a wild pitch and Adrian Arzola scoring on the back end of a double steal.

“We were cruising along, and everything was going well through four innings,” L-P coach Matt Glupczynski said. “We had a great start, but I thought we lost focus. Then in the fifth we made an error, walked a few guys, hit a guy and then later on a ball hit between first and second didn’t go after a ball and they scored two.”

In the Ottawa five-run fifth, Bryson and Swanson coaxed bases loaded walks before Jace Veith was hit by a pitch and Brendyn Fuchs shot a ball into rightfield to score two and make it 8-5.

The Cavs scored a run in the top of the sixth before the hosts used an infield error, three walks and a sacrifice fly by Bryson to make it 10-7 with Swanson coming to the plate.

The visitors scored one in the seventh before Bryson struck out the final batter.

 “Then in the sixth an error starts things off, then we walked some more hitters and finally (Ottawa) came up with a couple of big hits,” Glupczynski said. We just didn’t finish.”

Both sides open three-game I-8 series on Monday with Ottawa hosting Sycamore and La Salle-Peru traveling to Rochelle.