SHELBY – There was no way Joe Zizzo was slowing down.
“I am rounding (second), I look up and I do see that (coach Jordan Oliver) has his hands up, but I was full go,” the Colonel Crawford senior said. “I felt like I was pretty quick on the jump, so I thought I could get there and it worked out.”
In the bottom of the eighth inning against rival Wynford in a Division VI district semifinal, it was Zizzo who led off the inning drawing a four-pitch walk and eventually came home on a Grady Riddle blasts to left field for a walk-off winner giving the top-seed Eagles a 6-5 victory over the four-seeded Royals.
“It was all my teammates, all I had to do was get on with a walk,” Zizzo said. “All the credit to Brayden (Holt) hitting me all the way to third, and then Grady getting that line drive to left field. They’re studs, they’ve been hitting well all season, we knew we wanted those guys up for sure.”
As if that wasn’t thrilling enough, the Eagles trailed by three runs in the bottom of the seventh with one out. And they very easily could’ve had two outs when Holt roped one to Wynford’s Brayden Campbell at shortstop and he made an error allowing Holt to reach first safely; prior to that Campbell had been phenomenal defensively all afternoon.
Parker Weithman ripped a single up the middle and Riggle followed by driving in Weithman and Holt on a line drive to centerfield to pull the Eagles within a run. Van Wintersteller singled to centerfield after to get the winning run on base. Nate McCartney stepped up with two outs and looked like he would be the third and final out but the ball was flipped to second trying to get Wintersteller out and an aggressive slide saw him reach safely and Riggle saw the opportunity to pass by third and head home.
“It was surreal,” Zizzo said. “Going in bottom of the seventh, it was do or die. We had a first at bat out, but we just kept it going with the top of our lineup. There’s a lot to say about them and not enough time to say it … they’ve been dogs all season so it’s good to see those guys hitting well, they made it easier for us.”
Twice the Eagles seemed like they’d be down and out in the bottom of the seventh, and twice they rallied.
“It was an emotional game and we tried to emphasize to the kids that the score doesn’t matter until the bottom of the seventh inning, turned out it was the bottom of the eighth in this case,” Oliver said. “We have multi-sport athletes and they’re used to competing in football, track and field, basketball, golf … some of that showed today, they continued to compete.
“We hadn’t really had many come-from-behind wins, it just happened that today got to be the day.”
After somewhat passive play in the first five innings, it was Colonel Crawford putting pressure on the Wynford defense late that ultimately powered the Eagles back to the district championship.
“Catcher Braylon Wells and their pitchers do a great job side stepping, so we didn’t try to steal bases as much as I would have liked,” Oliver said. “But towards the end our guys were aggressive on the bases. We had two good jumps with two outs, and Van Wintersteller being an experienced senior got that key jump to get a safe play at second base in the bottom of the seventh allowing us to tie the game.”
For the Royals, it’s a result that will sting for a long time. Having added an insurance run in the sixth inning drawing a bases loaded walk, coach Tom Smith felt good about his team’s chances to close out.
“A couple errors, that has been our nemesis all year,” Smith said. “We have games where we play clean and we win, then we have our errors and we lose. That seventh inning we had at least two errors and that was the difference in the game.
“The seniors were distraught after that, they’ve been the heart and soul of the team,” Smith said. “Drew (Pope) and Brayden have been our one-two punch pitching, Collin (Hulsmeyer) has been the team captain all year, and Jackson Rayborn played great in right field for us. Just a good group of seniors, it’s hard to lose those guys.”
Pope started on the mound for the Royals and went 6⅓ innings allowing six hits, four runs, two earned with three strikeouts and two walks. Campbell came on in relief throwing one inning allowing four hits, two runs, one earned and striking out one with two walks taking the loss. Sophomore Clay Rogers had two hits, freshman Jaxon Tate three RBIs.
Tyce Lisle got the nod for the Eagles throwing four innings allowing six hits, four runs with two strikeouts and a walk before Parker Weithman logged 1⅔ innings with one hit, one unearned run, two strikeouts, and two walks. Bryant Berry stepped in for ⅔ of an inning getting the final out in the sixth inning and one to start the seventh, then Wintersteller pitched the final 1⅔ innings earning the win allowing no hits and striking out one. Riggle had three hits and three RBIs, Wintersteller added three hits, Holt had two hits and two runs, Weithman and McCartney drew two walks apiece.
“They want to have a chance to go back to regionals,” Oliver said. “At times it looked good, other times we weren’t sure if we could get back to this point. But all week we’ve said — whatever it takes to give you seniors one more chance to play for a district title.
“We’ll get our shot and we know St. Henry is going to be one heck of a challenge.”
It will be a clash of top seeds on Friday at Shelby High School with a district title on the line, first pitch at 5 p.m.
zholden@gannett.com | 419-617-6018 | Twitter/X: @Zachary_Holden
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Zizzo sparks walk-off for Colonel Crawford over Wynford in districts
Reporting by Zachary Holden, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
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