LINCOLN -- Reed Mendoza took a running leap celebrating his first Regional victory as Lincoln (12-19) punched its ticket to state with a 4-3 win over Valley Springs (13-13) Thursday.
He stopped short of doing cartwheels, yet the joy was obvious as the first-year head baseball coach joined his players rejoicing over a postseason run.
"Some coaches choose not to get excited, but I'm going to enjoy it," Mendoza said. "I'm going to enjoy it with the boys because why wouldn't you? "
The Wolves entered district tournament play with nine wins against 17 losses with a 2-game losing streak yet quickly turned their season around by finishing second at district and winning a first-round Regional tournament contest. Lincoln qualifies for state for the first time since 2013 when they competed at the 4A level.
Gutsy base-running by senior Sterling Morphis set up the winning run in the bottom of the seventh. Morphis bashed a single that he turned into a double with an extra-base gamble realizing the throw was short bringing the infielder off second.
Sophomore Noah Moore was up next showing bunt and getting ahead 2-0 in the count. The second pitch became a passed-ball and Morphis wasted no time scampering to third posturing the go-ahead run 90 feet away from the big dance as the Wolves' Cinderella postseason run continued.
Moore took ball three, then hit a short but high pop-up into shallow right center field taking the infield again away from second. Morphis sensed victory within the Wolves' grasp and blazed a trail home taking Lincoln into the promised land.
"Even if Sterling gets thrown out trying to score right there that's something that we'd do every time," Mendoza said. "We're big on being aggressive and taking chances, that's automatic. We did just enough to win."
The Wolves overcame an early 3-0 deficit when Valley Springs scored 3 runs on 3 hits in the top of the fourth.
Lincoln manufactured runs when the Wolves desperately needed to get back in the game. Lead-off hitter Ian Jackson coolly drew a walk on 3-2 pitch. Josh Jetton reached on an error and courageously turned the bunt into a double. That would not be the last of Jetton's heroics on the day.
With runners in scoring position Morphis drove a 2-run double deep down the right field line. Moore battled against an 0-2 count, drawing ball-one and fouling off a pitch before striking out swinging. Morphis stole third on the play and scored on a throwing error to even the score 3-3 at the end of the fourth.
The game featured a nip and tuck battle the rest of the way.
Valley Springs threatened in the top of the seventh.
Caden Scrivner led off with a walk moving to second on a passed ball and reaching third on Braydon Carnahan's single.
At that juncture Caleb Lloyd, who started on the mound for Lincoln, reached a 97-pitch count, but hung tough inducing Brenden Sharp to eek out a grounder. Lloyd scooped the ball up in his glove and threw to Jetton at the plate, who was plowed over resulting in Scrivner's ejection and a critical second out.
Lloyd issued a walk to Charles Still on 4-straight pitches bringing Mendoza out to the mound for a chat.
The senior hurler demonstrated poise by getting ahead of Sharp in a confrontation between opposite jersey No. 9s. Sharp fouled off a pitch, then ground out to second leaving three base runners stranded and giving Lincoln an opportunity to win outright rather than play from behind in the bottom of the seventh.
Sports on 05/08/2019