Baseball: Rock Falls rallies to top Oregon in regional quarterfinal

ROCK FALLS – When the ball left his bat, Rock Falls senior Dillon Schueler wasn’t sure he got enough of it to get the job done.

But his blooper in the bottom of the seventh inning dropped between the Oregon infielders and outfielders giving chase, and Gavin Sands scored the winning run as the Rockets defeated Oregon 4-3 in walk-off fashion in a Class 2A Byron quarterfinal.

“I didn’t think it was going to fall in,” Schueler said, “but luckily it was hit in the perfect spot to drop in and end the game.”

He almost didn’t have the chance, as classmate Brady Richards singled two pitches earlier with Sands on second base, but the sophomore had to wait to make sure the line drive got through the infield, and Rock Falls coach Donnie Chappell couldn’t send Sands to score from second on Richards’ fourth hit of the game.

“Props to Donnie for holding him up and giving me a chance,” Schueler said with a grin. “I’m just glad we were able to pull out a victory there.”

The seventh inning capped a game-long comeback for the Rockets. Oregon scored unearned runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings to lead 3-1 going into the bottom of the fifth, and pitcher Jack Washburn was keeping the Rock Falls hitters guessing the whole game.

He threw 111 pitches and finished with eight strikeouts, two walks and two hit batsmen while allowing four earned runs and eight hits in a complete game. His greatest weapon was his ability to either keep the Rockets off the board when they threatened to score, or limiting the damage when it looked like Rock Falls had big innings brewing.

“You’ve just got to weather the storm, really, just put your head down and keep going. That’s all you can do, just keep them honest,” Washburn said. “The fastball was my best pitch, and the curveball got me out of a couple of jams tonight, so that was good. My changeup is a work in progress still, but it worked a couple times tonight and got me some strikes.”

[ Photos from Rock Falls vs. Oregon regional baseball ]

He pitched around a one-out double by Richards in the first inning, then issued back-to-back one-out walks in the second before striking out the final two hitters to keep the Rockets scoreless. After Sands was hit by a pitch and Richards doubled to start the third, Washburn gave up a sacrifice fly to Schueler but nothing more.

He then worked a 1-2-3 fourth in just nine pitches.

“Props to that guy, he pitched a really good game,” Richards said. “I knew the bats would come around, it just took a little while there, but they finally did when the time came.”

Austin Castaneda led off the fifth for the Rockets with an infield single, then Sands’ double put runners on second and third with nobody out. Richards golfed a low pitch for a bloop RBI single past second base, then after Schueler hit into a fielder’s choice, Timmy Heald drove in Sands with the tying run on a groundout to third.

Sands started and allowed three unearned runs and two hits in 3 2/3 innings, with seven strikeouts and two walks. Richards relieved him and threw his first 13 pitches for strikes, and notched five strikeouts in his first six batters faced; Logan Weems singled with two outs in the fifth, but was caught stealing when Rock Falls catcher Cooper Hewitt threw a dart to second base to end the inning.

“I pitched against these guys earlier in the season, and the thing I stuck to was just throw strikes and trust my defense, and I just did that again and it came out perfect,” Richards said. “Props to them, they came out swinging the bats really well and there were a couple mistakes on our end, but we came through in the end.”

Carter Schueler led off the sixth with a double for Rock Falls, but Washburn struck out the next three hitters to keep the game tied 3-3. Richards then pitched around a one-out error in the top of the seventh, turning a comebacker into an out at third base, then striking out the next hitter to end the inning.

Sands led off the bottom of the frame with his second hit-by-pitch of the game, this time on a 3-1 count, then stole second. Richards followed with the single, then took second when the throw went home to keep Sands at third base, setting up Schueler’s walk-off Texas Leaguer.

“I knew Gavin would get on, and Donnie talked to me about our approach once Gavin got on, and I trusted him 100%,” Richards said. “We just did our jobs, and Dillon came through with the winning hit.”

“We were hoping Gavin could lead us off and get on base, and he did get us started in that inning,” Schueler added. “With Brady and me up to bat after him, we’re both solid hitters, two of the best in the team, and I thought we could get it done.”

Oregon was aggressive from the start, just like coach Nate Girton wanted. Josh Crandall was hit by a pitch to lead off the second, then Dom Terlikowski bunted him to second, and Gabe Eckerd’s grounder was thrown away at first base to allow Crandall to score.

In the third, Gavin Morrow reached on a two-base error to start the inning, then went to third on a wild pitch before scoring on Jackson Werren’s two-out single up the middle.

In the fourth, Crandall led off with a single, Terlikowski bunted him to second again, then Crandall scored when Eckerd reached on another error in the infield.

“In a setting like this, we’re not expected to win. We’re always the underdog, so we’ve got nothing to lose,” Washburn said. “We knew we might as well swing the bat, try to put the ball in play and do some damage.”

“Ultimately your goal when you’re the underdog is you’ve got to be aggressive and go at it. If you come out and play scared, it’s only going to make matters worse,” Girton said. “I thought we came out and played aggressive from the get-go, and then when you have a guy that pitches like that for you, it makes it fun for everybody. Jack did a tremendous job, and made it the competitive game that it was.”

But Rock Falls remained unfazed by the two-run deficit through four innings, and just kept plugging away until they earned a semifinal berth against hot Byron on Wednesday.

“We just wanted to play confident, stick to the basics, make the routine plays, put the ball in play,” Dillon Schueler said. “That’s all we could really do, and we knew we had a lot of time left. There was no panic at all.”