Special times call for special measures.

The Putnam County baseball team broke out its Player of the Game Chains for the first time this season for Wednesday’s semifinal of the Class 1A Annawan-Wethersfield Regional in Annawan.

By a unanimous choice, PC pitcher Rudy Villagomez received the honors, with four solid innings in relief to hold the ship and send the Panthers to Saturday’s regional final with a 5-1 win over Bureau Valley.

“This is the first time we actually brought this out for a game trying to get something going, I guess,” Villagomez said. “I’ve seen St. Bede had chains like this and always thought it was cool. But I never thought we’d do something like this.”

PC coach Chris Newsome was in all favor of breaking out the chains.

“It’s postseason. Everybody’s 0-0. You get an opportunity to win that chain if you perform well. I think it’s a great idea to get that incentive if there isn’t already,” he said.

“Coach (Jared) Sale held it up and everybody’s like, ‘Rudy.’ He wore it. He earned it by coming in and throwing strikes. He’s done that for us all year long. He’s a high strike rate pitcher. Not going to blow it by you, but he gets the job done. Creates some contact. As long as we play clean behind him we’re in good shape.”

Newsome made the move to Villagomez when PC starter Kade Zimmerlein started BV’s Aiden Litherland off on a 1-1 count to start the fourth inning. The Storm loaded the bases with one out on hits by Dakari Martin and Tyce Barkman and a walk to pinch hitter Wyatt Smith, but Villagomez fanned Brandon Carrington and then retired Logan Philhower on a deep fly to center.

While BV coach Ryan Schisler thought it was just a long, lazy fly ball, it kept carrying, pushing PC center fielder Carter Hochstatter to about 10 feet from the fence.

“It kept carrying. I saw their guy get turned around thought maybe we had a shot,” Schisler said.

Philhower thought he hit it out.

“Felt really good off the bat. I was hoping it would go over for us,” Philhower said. “It would have been awesome. Would have tied the game and gave us a big boost in morale.”

PC struck first with an RBI single by Wyatt Zellers, scoring Hochstatter, who singled.

The Panthers stretched their lead to 4-0 with three runs in the third, including a sacrifice fly by Zimmerlein, an RBI double by Maddox Poole and an RBI single by Payton Barto.

They made it 5-0 in the fifth when Johnathon Stunkel followed a single by Traxton Mattingly, who was 3 for 3, with an RBI double.

BV pitcher Blake Foster got the Storm on the board with an RBI double in the seventh, scoring Carrington, who led off with a single.

“We had a couple different opportunities - A to jump out to a lead and B to close the gap. Unfortunately, the big hits didn’t fall when we had guys in scoring position,” Schisler said. “To (PC’s) credit, they paved their way through it and earned everything they got. It’s probably why they’re the 1 seed in the sectional.”

Schisler ends the season desiring more.

“I think my bar is higher than 15-15 and a (regional) semifinal truthfully. I think my guys should set the bar higher and I think we left some things on the table for the team this year. I’ll go back and reset and figure out how we can keep pushing. I don’t think 15-15 is going to satisfy me and it shouldn’t satisfy our guys.”

The Panthers (21-11) await the winner of Thursday’s semifinal between No. 4 Annawan-Wethersfield (17-12) and No. 5 Midland (12-14) in Saturday’s regional final at 11 a.m. in Annawan. PC will send Stunkel, its ace, to the mound.

“This is what everybody remembers, the postseason,” Newsome said. “You can be 0-fer and take home some hardware, people remember that. If you win 25 games in the postseason and don’t win anything, you’re forgotten. That’s just how it goes.”

PC beat A-W 10-7 in eight innings and split a Tri-County Conference series with Midland, losing 7-3 and winning 13-1.