Chiles, Hiltoppers end Vandals’ season

Hillsboro’s Jordan Chiles has shown the Vandalia baseball team he can hit a baseball just as well as he runs the football, kicks the football and shoots the basketball.

Turns out, the Vandals’ multi-sport nemesis can pitch a little as well.

Chiles out-dueled Dallas Gray in a battle of aces Friday, leading the host team to a 4-2 victory in the semifinals of the Hillsboro Class 2A Regional.

Chiles had Vandalia frustrated all game long, allowing just one earned run on five hits in a complete-game effort.

The good news: Chiles has finally graduated.

The bad news: He and the Hiltoppers (14-7) handed the Vandals (11-15) their fifth straight loss to close out a spring that appeared to be going in a completely different direction after a midseason stretch in which they beat top programs such as Greenville and South Central.

‘We really hit our stride there,’ said first-year VCHS head coach Luke Hohlt of the stretch. ‘We were hitting the ball well, we were pitching the ball well. We were playing good defense.’

The trick now – figuring out how to sustain such excellence.

‘We have got to build off those experiences,’ said Hohlt of beating such programs. ‘And I believe we can turn this (loss) into a learning experience if we want to.

‘It can make us work harder. It can make us remember we need to be more patient at the plate. And in big games, it’s different than the first game of the year. This is the end of the season, so we’ve got to be ready to go.’

Hohlt entered the contest optimistic the Vandals would be able to break out of a bit of a late-season offensive funk based on recent batting-cage sessions. But they simply never looked settled at the plate against Chiles.

‘You’ve got to give their kid credit,’ Hohlt said. ‘He kept us off balance. He threw a nice little curveball in there. And we didn’t do a very good job laying off the high fastballs.’

Many of Chiles’ 10 strikeouts came on high heat, helping him strand six Vandals on the basepaths.

Gray was a worthy adversary, even though he wasn’t as dominating as he had been throughout the regular season.

The senior righty allowed three earned runs on seven hits in six innings, as an error and a bit of a fluke play proved costly in the grand scheme.

Vandalia jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the first against Chiles, as Brenden Wasmuth led of with a single, advanced to second on a Chad Elam bunt and scored from second on a throwing error.

Hillsboro countered with a tally of its own in the bottom of the inning, however, before taking the lead for good with a two-run third.

Chiles got things going with a one-out walk before being plated on Cody McCoy double. McCoy made it 3-1 Hiltoppers seconds later by scoring on a throwing error.

Rightfielder Cory Bunker helped limit the damage, however, throwing a runner out at the plate, and Gray stranded runners on first and second by coaxing an inning-ending flyout.

Unfortunately, three runs would be all that Chiles would need.

Clint Sigrist came up with a clutch two-out RBI single to cut Hillsboro’s lead to 3-2 in the fourth, but the Hiltoppers got the run back in the bottom of the frame, and Chiles shut the door the rest of the way.

The Hiltoppers’ insurance tally came in bizarre fashion. With runners at first and second with one out, centerfielder Mitch Whightsil made an off-balance catch on a deep fly ball. But John Joyce caught the Vandals off guard by tagging and sneaking in to score all the way from second – even though there was some controversy regarding whether Joyce took off for home before the ball was caught.

Gray wound up taking his third tough-luck loss of the season, but there was no question that he answered his coach’s challenge to turn himself into an ace during his final campaign.

Gray entered the game with a sparkling 2.02 earned run average, and he finished his senior season with 67 strikeouts and just 10 walks.

‘I told him I wanted him to be that kind of pitcher for us,’ Hohlt said. ‘And I’ll tell you what – that kid worked very, very hard.

‘He is a competitor – a big-time competitor. And that turned him into being a good pitcher. He had the desire to be a good pitcher.’

Gray is one of four seniors Hohlt was forced to say goodbye to after Friday’s loss.

‘My seniors, I love very, very much,’ Hohlt said. ‘It’s going to be sad to not coach them again.’

Wasmuth, like Gray, was a three-year starter in the middle of the infield for the Vandals. They were both freshmen during Hohlt’s first year as a coach in the program and, as Hohlt is quick to attest, the Vandals’ double-play combo will be tough to replace.

‘We kind of came in together, and they both worked very hard from the beginning,’ Hohlt said. ‘Both of those guys are good enough to play college baseball, and I wish they would.’

Sigrist and Elam both returned to the program after brief hiatuses, working their way into key roles on the varsity squad.

‘I know both of them regret not playing four years of baseball, and that makes me proud of our program and our sport to make them wish they had played four years,’ Hohlt said. ‘That tells me we’re doing something out here to make our guys wish they were out here, and miss it.’

All told, Hohlt acknowledged the Vandals made progress during the 2008 season, improving their win count by four games from 2007. But, he also noted, that work remains if the Vandals are to get over the hump.

‘We need to work on our work ethic,’ Hohlt said. ‘This is a team and a program that worked hard – but not hard enough – in the past. We’ve got to work harder.’