The Hillsboro Indians rallied from a six-run deficit in the seventh inning to send the game to extra innings, but the home standing Whiteoak Wildcats pulled out a 13-12 victory after nine innings Saturday.
“First of all, hats off to a very talented and well-coached Hillsboro squad,” Whiteoak coach Chris Veidt said. “To have your backs to the wall like they did and score six runs in their final at bat to force extra innings shows character. We gave them nothing in that inning. They earned every bit of it. Mason Stanley’s double in the seventh was as clutch as it gets. The play their right fielder made on Carraher in the seventh was huge. That should’ve ended it, but he was having none of it. Impressive.”
Whiteoak jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and stretched the lead to 7-2 after three innings. Hillsboro got a run back in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth to pull within 7-5. But Whiteoak added a run in the bottom of the fifth inning and four more in the sixth for a 12-6 lead that appeared fairly safe.
“Chase Butler battled as always, just ran out of gas in the sixth,” Veidt said. “Mason Lehr, most likely the player of the game for us both offensively and clutch on the mound. For a kid to perform like he did in his second varsity pitching appearance is impressive. Chase Carraher did so many little things well. He showed great leadership for us on the field when things got tight in the sixth. Played as good as shortstop as any kid I’ve seen and put together three quality at bats as well. Caleb West’s three RBI were huge leading to big innings for us in the third and fifth. Trever Yeager is Trever Yeager – calm, cool, collected, ending it for us in walk-off fashion scoring Ryan Roberts, who was also solid for us – four quality at bats, and two hits in the ninth to end it.”
Hillsboro got a base runner to second with two outs in the ninth, but he was stranded there.
Kelton Anderson and Phillips Mycroft both had three hits for Hillsboro and Stanley had two.
Roberts, West and Mason Lehr all had two hits for Whiteoak.
“Our kids – wow. Resilient.” Veidt said. “Baseball can be such a difficult, negative game at times and for them to take the disappointment of closing the game against a huge rival and still having the courage to walk off in the ninth was impressive. We needed this type of game, opponent, atmosphere, result for so many reasons. So proud of our kids.”
