In what would be an instant classic of a baseball game, MCC’s bats came alive against TMB in extra innings to move on in the Section 3A playoffs.
The Rebel offense struck early, as they put up two runs in the top of the first inning. MCC was the visiting team today, as the coin toss did not go their way. Carter Benda led off the game with a walk and Derek Kluis ripped one of his five hits on the day to left field, marking a double. Teague Meyer was courtesy running for the catcher, Benda, and ended up on third base. Christian Tentinger followed the double with his own double, driving in the first two runs of the game.
The Rebels would load the bases with a Jaden Deacon single and Connor DeGreeff would reach on an error, but MCC came away with no more runs in the first.
TMB started fast as well, with a lead off single, followed by a sacrifice bunt. The extra effort by the baserunner got him to third base on the bunt as well. A fly out for the second out of the inning gave the Rebels a chance to get out of the inning unscathed, but an infield error would lead to the run. Abe Paulzine, who started the game, would strikeout the fifth batter of the inning to end it up 2-1.
The Rebels answered back in the top of the second with a two out run. The first two Rebel batters popped out, but Derek Kluis doubled again and Christian Tentinger singled to drive in Kluis for the third run of the game.
Paulzine would strike out two of three batters in the next inning, while only facing four, pitching a scoreless bottom of the second. The Rebels went down quickly in the top of the third, 1-2-3 on 10 pitches.
In the bottom of the third, TMB would score again, cutting the lead to 3-2 as a single, followed by a fielder’s choice, followed by another single got the run across.
The Rebels bats would not be patient, and they went down quickly again in the top of the fourth, 1-2-3, but this time on only six pitches. Not giving the defense, or Paulzine, much of a chance to rest and at the same time, giving momentum back to the Panthers.
TMB took advantage in the bottom of the fourth, scoring two runs, a single followed by a double would score the first run and another infield error would lead to the second run, as the Panthers took the lead 4-3 going into the top of the fifth inning.
MCC again showed little patience in the top of the fifth, as the first two outs came on three pitches. But a Jaden Deacon walk on six pitches was followed up by a Connor DeGreeff single to let the defense rest and allow the pitch count to rise for TMB.
Derek Kluis came in for relief of Paulzine and the Rebels put together a nice bottom of the fifth inning, facing only four batters.
The Rebels, now down 4-3 only have six outs left in their season, but some clutch at-bats would help the Rebels tie the game in the top of the sixth. Krew Schneider started the inning off with a single which would be followed by a big Tanner Graphenteen sacrifice bunt. Teague Meyer would pinch run for Scheider and advance to second base. A Carter Benda walk put a lot of speed on the base paths for the Rebels and also brought red hot hitting Derek Kluis to the plate. Kluis delivered again with a single to left field, which drove in Meyer from second base. Christian Tentinger came up and hit a line drive to the shortstop, who made a nice catch that would turn into a double play and end the threat. But the Rebels had done what they needed to do and tied the game.
The bottom of the sixth saw Kluis strikeout three batters, the third would reach on a dropped third strike, but then he got the next batter to fly out to shortstop Abe Paulzine.
The Rebels put together a scoring threat in the top of the seventh but came away with nothing. A big double play in the bottom of the seventh ended a scoring threat for the Panthers, as Christian Tentinger got the putout at first and threw across the diamond to third for the double play. The inning ended on a ground out to Abe Paulzine at shortstop.
Going into extra innings, it would have been hard to predict what was coming next, but with this high powered offense you just never know when it’s going to explode, and explode it did. The Rebels put up nine runs on eight hits in the inning. A two run home run by Derek Kluis highlighted the inning, as well as, an Abe Paulzine triple off the scoreboard that scored Christian Tentinger who had walked. A pair of two run singles, one by Jaden Deacon and the other by Aidan Dierks capped the huge inning and put the Rebels up 13-4.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Panthers got one run back, but that would be it. MCC won the game and now advances to the losers bracket championship game against RTR. That game will be played on Tuesday, June 6th at 7pm at the Irish Yard. The winner will advance to the Section Championship game where they will face YME Thursday, June 8th in Milroy.
