Blue Jackets come up just short in regional semifinal

BOWLING GREEN – New Riegel played well enough to knock off Minster Wednesday in a Division VII regional semifinal at Carter Park in Bowling Green. But a few mistakes proved too costly in a 9-8 loss.The Blue Jackets (16-13) and the Wildcats (23-6) battled back and forth in the first few innings until New Riegel broke through with a three-run bottom of the fourth to grab a 5-3 lead. However, it wasn't safe.Minster then tied things up in the sixth and then tacked on four more runs in the seventh, before the Blue Jackets made things awfully interesting in the bottom of the seventh, but it just wasn't enough."That was a real tough one today … you have to do things right at this level. Everyone you face is good at this level, so the baserunning mistakes, the error in the seventh, those are things that can't happen if you're going to advance and those are things that can't happen against a team like Minster," New Riegel coach Dereck Uitto said. "We had put ourselves in position to win this, but I thought they hit the ball well today, and it was a really good high school baseball game today. "Both sides made mistakes and both sides took advantage, but they took advantage just a little more than we did."Both teams left a lot of runners on base as almost every inning each team threatened on the basepaths. Minster led at least one runner in scoring position in five of the seven innings at the plate. It did out-hit New Riegel 12-5, but the Blue Jackets took advantage of 11 walks. "It was both teams giving the other team a bunch of opportunities. They gave us a bunch, we gave them a bunch," Minster coach Mike Wiss said. "Thank goodness for our two triples and three or four doubles we hit today, but every now and then baseball comes up and gets you, it's tough to throw a strike."To have James Niemeyer come in to pitch the last three innings … that was a kid that pitched six innings all season. He came to me and said, 'I want the ball.' He had bullpen sessions this season, but during a game, it never felt right. But if you can get a high school senior that's been a three-year starter that wants it like that, you give him the ball." Both teams went scoreless in the first inning, but Minster did leave a runner on third, while New Riegel left runners on third and second.In the second, Rylan Edwards drove in a run on an out to second base to give Minster a 1-0 edge. But New Riegel responded right back Blake Moes drove in Gabe Pugh with an RBI single to right field, where the Blue Jackets ran into the third out at third base as the runner on second thought the runner going to third was being waved home, but he stopped and went back to third, causing the third out.In the third, Edwards drove in another run, this time on a sac fly to center. But NR responded again as Carson Pahl scored on a balk. In the fourth, Minster tallied another single run as Reese Beair drilled an RBI double to left center, but the Wildcats left runners on third and second.The key inning for New Riegel was in the bottom of the fourth as Pahl drove in a run with a sac fly with the bases loaded, Carter Clouse reached on an error, Shane Jones scored on a wild pickoff throw to first and then Alec Hohman drove in a run on a walk with the bases loaded. But once again, runners were left on third and second.Minster tied things up with two runs in the sixth as Uitto stuck with Jones on the hill to try to get through the sixth, but after giving up two runs on a fielder's choice and then an RBI single up the middle from Louis Magoto, Uitto made the switch to Pugh."Shae is an absolute stud and we're going to miss him more than I can even tell you, but yeah when I went out to talk to him he said he wasn't tired, but it was fourth time through the order and if he could get through that, we'd stick him, but once he gave up that one hit, it was time to turn it over," Uitto said. "He was OK with that, but it's hard to take the ball from Shane Jones. It's a difficult decision."In the top of the seventh, Pugh got the first out, but after an error put a runner on first and a double by Connor Schmiesing and after a hit batter and three straight walks and a passed ball, the Wildcats led 9-5.New Riegel did score three runs in the bottom-half on a Moes RBI single and a hard-hit grounder by the first baseman by Pahl, but Minster held on."This was my first class that came through with Shane Jones, Carson Pahl and Carter Clouse and I told them I loved all of them. They put in a ton of work in these four years," Uitto said. "But I told the younger guys you can get back here, but they need to model what they do after those three guys and what they've done these last four years. That's how you build a program."Those younger guys have to grow into that leadership, so then it becomes their responsibility."