4 days Ago By By MARCUS HILL [email protected]
This victory for Liberty resembled every kid’s dream backyard scenario. The Lancers watched 5A’s No. 4-ranked Pine Creek cut their six-run lead to 12-11 – the eventual final score – in the top of the seventh inning Tuesday.
Pine Creek had two outs remaining to erase the Lancers’ lead, but Liberty tasked David Kempf with sealing the victory at home. The Eagles loaded the bases, but a pop fly left them with two outs. In the Eagles’ final at-bat, Kempf battled, but ended up with a full count and the danger of walking in the tying run.
Kempf adjusted his cap, took a deep breath and the right-hander let a slider fly toward the batter. “I put things in perspective, trusted God and said, ‘Whatever happens, happens,’” Kempf said after the Lancers’ 12-11 win against Pine Creek. “I threw all sliders because that was the pitch I found most effective and that was what I could control the best.
The fastball was off, so I went to my secondary, the slider, and stuck with that.” As Kempf’s slider flew past the batter and into his catcher’s mitt, the umpire signaled out and the senior hopped from the mound and ran toward his teammates to celebrate the end of a 31-game losing streak against the Eagles. “That was a lot of years in the making,” Kempf said.
“I didn’t want to walk in the tying run. There was a lot of relief in that celebration and it was good to get the win.” Since 2009, Pine Creek (8-3) stacked myriads of victories against Liberty (7-9) including a 14-1 win last season in their first meeting.
However, Pine Creek escaped with a 1-0 win in the teams’ final meeting in May. A moral victory for the Lancers, sure. But they hoped to parlay that into success this year.
After Pine Creek built a 6-2 lead in the top of the fifth, the outcome looked bleak, but Lancers coach Cody Sedlak’s confidence never wavered. “We talked to them about having grit and giving a fight until the seventh inning is over,” Sedlak said. “We went down and we knew they were a tough club.
Pine Creek is always at the top, so we knew this wouldn’t be easy. "Between innings, some of the boys got together and talked about having grit. And that was the theme of the day, ‘Let’s have grit.
’” The meeting worked as the Lancers tied 6-6 after the bottom of the fifth and put up six in the bottom of the sixth to build a 12-6 cushion. Jacob Rinard knotted the contest at 6-all with a 2-RBI double that scored David Jensen and Kempf in the fifth inning. “I was thinking how to move our runners around,” Rinard said.
“I saw the first two pitches and saw that they were curve balls. I sat back and thought of how to move the runners over. That team-first mentality we had at the end is what got us back into the ball game.
” The Eagles went three up, three down in the top of the sixth and then Jensen’s 2-RBI double in the bottom of the inning gave the Lancers an 8-6 lead which opened the flood gates to build their six-run lead. “We’ve been in a situation all year where we’ve trailed so we knew what we were coming into,” Jensen said. “I don’t know what I see when I bat, I just swing.
I get lucky every at-bat. I’m always thinking ‘swing first’ because the first pitch may be the best one and you don’t want that to go by.” Pine Creek’s Jake Holm hit his second homer of the season and cut the lead to 12-9 in the top of the seventh and the Eagles added two more runs to cut it to 12-11, but Kempf stymied that rally.
“This feels good,” Sedlak said. “We’ve had an up-and-down year and we let them know that our season is not over. We have to dig deep, show up ready to play and that’s what they did.
They showed up ready to play.”.
