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CHILLICOTHE – One of the most difficult jobs in baseball is coming straight off the bench to pinch hit.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
Yet, for the third consecutive game, Unioto’s Andrew Lemaster came through in — quite literally — a pinch when the Shermans needed him the most.
Entering in a tie game in the fourth inning of Wednesday’s Division II sectional championship, the senior laced a 1-1 slider into center field to give Unioto (24-2) its first lead of the night, one they wouldn’t relinquish in a 6-2 victory over Waverly (18-8).
“Usually I come up with runners in scoring position, so I just have to stay loose and do what I’ve done my whole life and just hit the ball,” Lemaster said of his duties. “I saw a little bit of spin and it kind of hung, so I just took it the other way and knew I could get a base hit there.”
While the game may have finished according to plan for the Shermans, things didn’t start the way they had hoped for as Waverly touched up the Tanks for two unearned runs in the top of the first inning.
The Tigers’ LT Jordan laced a 1-2 pitch to left field for a double to open the game and he scored on a misplayed pop-up. Alex Boles sprinted into second base on the mishap and later scored when Ben Nichols scorched a grounder up the middle to give Waverly an early 2-0 lead.
Unioto quickly struck back, however, as Keegan Snyder smacked an RBI single to right field that scored Ashton Crace to narrow the gap to 2-1.
Crace later scored again, this time in the bottom of the third, on a two-out infield single from Andrew Griffin to tie the game at 2-2.
“Defensively, [Crace] has been great all year. But offensively, he heats up when the weather does,” Unioto assistant coach Nick Rose said, “We’ve seen it for three years now. I think it’s the bigger the game, the better the pitcher, the better that he’s going to play. He’s going to rise to the moment.”
With the game all knotted up, Unioto pitcher Maverick Frump began to find his groove.
The Tigers were able to get two men on with two outs in the fourth, but the imposing righty locked up the following hitter with a slider to catch his man looking and end the threat.
“My slider was on. I knew it was going to be on from warm-ups,” Frump, now 6-1 this season, said of his signature pitch. “I threw a couple of changeups, but I really depend on my slider.”
After Isaiah Leeth was hit by a pitch to open the fourth, the Tanks called on Lemaster to come through. Lemaster’s line-drive single to right-center field easily scored Leeth, giving the Shermans a 3-2 lead after four innings of play.
One out walks to Griffin and Landyn Patterson, mixed in with a wild pitch, put runners on second and third for KB Perkins in the fifth. The sophomore grounded out, but was able to drive in Griffin on a ball up the middle. Leeth followed with a sharp line drive to right, scoring Patterson, and Dylan Grubbs wrapped a single to right to score Leeth, giving the Shermans a 6-2 lead and the ball game.
Frump finished the night going 6 1/3 innings on the hill, giving up zero earned runs, five hits and striking out six. At the dish, Lemaster, Griffin, Snyder, Leeth and Grubbs each had a hit and an RBI. K.B. Perkins also added an RBI.
For Waverly, Nichols finished 3-for-3 with an RBI.
Unioto advances to play in a Division II district semifinal at 4 p.m., Monday at Ohio University against Circleville — who defeated No. 2 seed Sheridan by an 8-1 final to advance.
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