Vandalia outlasts South Central in 11-inning game

SALEM – The suicide squeeze is one of the most exciting plays in baseball.

It's also one of the most dangerous.

Nonetheless, Vandalia coach TK Kinkead drew up the play for Nick Metzger as the clock approached 11 p.m. last Friday night in the second-round of the Jr. Legion District Tournament.

Metzger squared, placed a perfect bunt and Leyton Godoyo scored to give Post 95 a slim 4-3 lead in the 11th inning against South Central.

Johnnie Clift would draw a bases-loaded walk two batters later, and Vandalia left South Central with the bases loaded in the bottom half of the inning to earn the upset win, 5-4.

“I’m happy they found a way to get it done,” Kinkead said. “These guys battled their hearts out. Earlier in the season, you didn’t get a chance to see this, but they would never give up.

“I’m proud of every one of these guys, because it took everyone tonight.”

South Central certainly had its chance to seal the win in the 11th.

Four of the first five batters walked to help produce one run. A second run was saved when one of Clift’s pitches went wild, but clanged off the bat of Fischer Tharp for a foul ball instead of a wild pitch.

Tharp would strike out after a six-pitch at-bat, and the game would end when Luke Krajefska popped up behind first base. Vandalia recovered the ball and just beat Krajefska to the bag with a throw.

Even though he swung at the first pitch, South Central coach Curt Jones said Krajefska is the perfect hitter for that situation.

“He has played varsity ball for two years,” Jones said. “As far as anybody you would want to bat in that situation, it’d be him.”

Both teams had threatened earlier in extra innings, with Vandalia leaving the bases loaded in the eighth, ninth and 11th, and South Central stranding runners in scoring position in the same frames.

Jeff Lucken, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning, watched five pitches go by before stroking a double to left and stealing third during the next at-bat.

“He has just now started batting left-handed the last two games,” Kinkead said. “He’s hit the ball well. When he gets a chance to do something, he does it.”

Lucken scored when Josh Lawson reached on an error.

South Central, however, knotted the game at 3 after getting back-to-back singles from Rudy Hablewitz and Drake Ritter in the bottom half.

“It was a pretty even game,” Jones said. “They made some mistakes, then we made some mistakes, and then it became a pitching duel.”

The mistakes Jones spoke of came early in the game.

In the bottom of the first, a Vandalia error helped manufacture two runs for South Central, with Krajefska and Heath Hoffman scoring, and a South Central miscue in the third began a rally that allowed Vandalia to tie the game, with Clift and Quinn Wadkins crossing the plate.

For the next three innings, Metzger and South Central’s Shawn Meyer combined to strike out 10 hitters and allow just two hits and two walks.

 “It took guts what Nick did,” Kinkead said. “He ended up going (five) innings, and it takes guts to do that in relief against a team that has hit you well in the past.”

Meyer, who pitched nine innings, also drew praise from his coach.

“He throws strikes,” Jones said. “We are used to seeing him do that, and he got out of some serious jams.”