VERO BEACH – There were clutch performances by Cody Miller and Brandon Walker.
There were unsung hero performances by Jaxon Pomar and Eli Thiemann.
And the Vero Beach High baseball team needed all of them and more to move on.
Vero Beach scored a run in the top of the seventh inning, and Walker made it stand with a courageous pitching performance in a 1-0 victory over Harmony High in the second game of the best-of-3 Class 7A-Region 3 semifinal Saturday at Vero Beach High.
Coming off a 7-0 whitewash of the Longhorns on Friday evening, Vero Beach (22-4) swept the series and moves into next week’s regional final against Park Vista (20-5).
Walker knocked down, but not out
In the bottom of the fourth inning of a scoreless game, Walker was struck flush with a batted ball.
“Oh yeah, I didn’t touch it. It was square,” the 6-foot-6 right-handed pitcher said. “It missed my jaw and temple area. It just hit meat. I’m alive though.”Walker went down in a heap.
“Oh yeah. When I went down, the whole side of my face was hot,” he said. “I laid down a little bit and felt fine.”
Vero Beach High trainer AJ Bewersdorf was one of the first to the mound. He placed Walker through a number of tests.
“And every test the trainer put him through, he passed with flying colors,” Vero Beach coach Bryan Rahal said. “AJ was unbelievable. He put him through seven or eight different tests.
“I ran out there expecting the worst. There weren’t any cuts or anything like that. Everything was intact, but I’m just Average Joe.”
When Rahal reached the mound, he said Walker was “cracking jokes” as were his teammates. When Bewersdorf cleared Walker there was one thing left for Rahal to do.
“I went to talk to his mom,” the veteran coach said. “Ultimately, that’s their decision. Mom was just like, ‘Coach, as long as you check on him every inning and if he’s OK, he can go out there.’ That was unbelievable, just a lot of resilience for that young man. Super proud of him.”
Walker still faced the pressure of a scoreless game into the seventh inning.
“It’s hard,” he said. “You just have to go out there and give your best.”
Walker got through it by attacking the zone early.
“Changeup was working really well, slider was working well late in the game. I let my defense work for me. Everyone was making plays, making me look a lot better.”
After receiving the one-run lead in the top of the seventh inning, Walker walked the leadoff batter to open the bottom of the inning. The runner was sacrificed to second for the first out.
Walker then recorded his third strikeout of the game and got the final hitter to pop fittingly to Morgan at second base to end the game.
In raising his record to 9-0 and lowering his earned run average to a miniscule 0.47, Walker pitched a two-hit shutout with two walks. He has fanned 73 in 59 ⅔ innings.
“I don’t think there’s a word or multiple words that can describe what Brandon Walker just went out and did today,” Rahal said. “A warrior, a competitor, those don’t even do it justice. It was a one-of-a-kind performance.
“A kid who’s worked hard his whole career since his freshman year to be in that position. And then go out there and overcome adversity, which I’m super proud of him for.”
“Absolute dawg,” Morgan said of Walker. “I mean he got hit in the head. I don’t know many people who would get back up and finish a game off like that, because that ball was smoked.
“He pitched out of innings that he had jams in. A bulldog performance.”
Morgan comes through in clutch again
Another senior right-hander, Morgan placed Vero Beach (22-4) in the position of needing one victory with a complete-game gem of his own Friday evening.
He pitched a six-hitter with eight strikeouts and no walks to boost his record to 8-4 with a 0.98 ERA and 97 strikeouts in 64 innings. It was his 29th career win.
Saturday in Game 2, Morgan came through with his bat, only after a couple of unsung heroes made it possible.
After fouling a pitch off his left foot, Pomar was struck by a pitch in the same area to reach base with two outs in the top of the seventh inning. (Vero Beach was the visiting team in Game 2.)
“He took one for the team and got somebody on,” Morgan said. “He got the bat to my hand. I was just trying to work it and get it to my next guy.”
Pomar gave way to pitch-runner Thiemann, who stole second with a brilliant slide.
“What I can tell you about this team: Everybody accepts the role they have or whatever their job is for that day, and they do it to the best of their ability, which I love about them,” Rahal said. “Whoever gets called upon to do it, has to be ready to do it at the highest of capability.”
Up came Morgan, who grounded out in his first two at-bats. However, during the third inning Morgan told Pomar that he would get the game-winning hit Saturday
“I did. I was sitting with Jaxon,” Morgan said. “I just had confidence. Confidence is key.”
Morgan drilled an inside fastball to the left-center field gap scoring Thiemann easily with the only run of the game.
“Low and inside fastball,” Morgan said. “I’ve been working on trying to keep my hands in. I got jammed earlier so I knew I had to adjust.”
Morgan said it was his biggest hit since getting two doubles in Game 1 of the regional semifinals a year ago.
“Yeah, it’s better because I’m not used to it,” he said. ”Pitching, I do it all the time. Hitting, it’s not every day I hit a double like that.”
“Clutch. He’s a dawg,” Walker said of Morgan. “When we needed a base hit, he did even more and got a double. Timely hitting. That’s what we needed.”
“I’ve said this a million times: Cody Morgan epitomizes the program,” Rahal said. “The kid lives for those moments. He has been since he was 5-year-old towhead running around with shaggy hair. For him to be in that moment, it was the right guy at the right time.”
Onto the regional finals at home again
Once again as the top seed in 7A-3, Vero Beach will be home for the regional finals in the same best-of-3 format with the first game Friday, May 8 and the next two, if necessary, Saturday, May 9.
“Job’s not done,” Walker said. “We’ve got the championship yet to go to states.”
“It means we get back to the championship and I get another chance to do what I do and give my teammates the best chance to go to states again,” Morgan said.
“I can sleep a little bit and less stress and maybe an extra day or two for my heart and maybe my ulcers will subside,” Rahal said. “Just great baseball. Anytime you can win a game against a very good opponent, it’s a great feeling.”
Winning 20 or more games for the third straight year, Vero Beach defeated Harmony (16-12) two years ago in the one-game regional final to go to the Final 4.
In extending its winning streak to eight games with the sweep, Rahal knows how tough the Longhorns are.
“That’s a great lineup over there, a well-coached team,” he said. “A bunch of great players on the other side, who can play. To watch them compete and play, they are very good.”
He also knows the value of his players.
“I’m so proud of the whole group,” he said. “Our guys on the bench are so into it, thinking things through, pulling for our guys, willing things to happen. We have a whole dugout of unsung heroes. I’m glad to be their coach. I couldn’t be any prouder of what these young men do.”
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Vero Beach baseball sweeps Harmony to reach region final
Reporting by Dennis Maffezzoli, Special to TCPalm / Treasure Coast Newspapers
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
