Pisgah baseball eliminated in 15-inning battle

May 8—Pisgah baseball's season came to an end Tuesday night, losing on the road to Rockingham County 4-3 in a marathon 15-inning game.

"I was proud of the boys," Pisgah coach Harold Shepard said. "It was a good experience for my young kids, but it was a tough way for my seniors to go out. But they'll have something to remember. Hopefully, it acts as a motivator for my young guys and shows that we can compete at this level. You're supposed to learn from losses. We all learned something last night."

The game was a seemingly never-ending defensive battle.

"In 49 years of baseball, I can not remember a game that was 15 innings worth of that kind of baseball," Shepard said.

The Bears made it home to Canton just before 5 a.m. Wednesday morning. Shepard said he made it to bed around 5:20 a.m. and was back at Pisgah at 7:35 a.m. for work.

After initially being set for a 6 p.m. first pitch, the game was moved back to 6:30 p.m. due to weather.

Once things actually started, the offenses got off to a hot start offensively with the No. 26-seeded Pisgah grabbing two runs in the top of the first inning, but the No. 7-seeded Rockingham County answered back with three of their own to grab the 3-2 lead.

From there, no more runs would be scored until the seventh inning.

That was in large part due to a strong pitching performance from freshman Zack Wester, who went seven innings while allowing just seven hits and two walks and striking out nine with no runs coming across the board.

"I put Wester in and he threw 7 solid innings of baseball," Shepard said. "He didn't allow a run to score. He came out of it looking pretty effective and pretty good."

Pitcher shortage in second round?

Rockingham County will now host the other Haywood County team, No. 10-seeded Tuscola, on Friday. Tuesday's game put a dent in the Cougars' pitching staff.

Players can only pitch a maximum of 105 pitches in a day. Any player who throws 61-75 pitches in an outing has to take three days of rest, while anyone with more than 75 pitches in an outing must take four days of rest.

Cougar sophomore Hudson Deel threw 98 pitches, while junior Nate Revis threw 80, meaning neither can pitch in a game until Sunday.

"It didn't really matter who came out," Shepard said. "They used five pitchers last night. They used their three best pitchers against us."

The Cougars losing two of their best pitchers for Friday's second-round game will surely set up the Mountaineers to be in a good position to get a berth into the third round of the playoffs.

"I really feel like they won't know what hit them when Tuscola rolls into Rockingham," Shepard said.

After another weather delay in the top of the sixth inning, Pisgah went into the seventh inning trailing by one with their season on the line.

The Bears battled back, scoring one in the top of the frame to force extra innings. Pisgah had a shot to win it there, but couldn't score any more than the single run.

"They were in it and I felt like we had a chance to finish it off, but we just didn't. We were pressing a little bit and they were pressing. It was just one of those things where everyone was trying really hard," Shepard said. "We had chances to win it and we just came short. I was happy with the way we pitched and the way we played defense. We just didn't hit when it was the most important times to hit. Unfortunately, it cost us in the end."

From there, neither team managed to put a run across from the bottom of the seventh to the bottom of the 15th inning. Pisgah had many chances to get a run across, but every time they did, Rockingham County buckled down to stop the opportunity.

"It was almost Groundhog Day-esque," Shepard said. "Somebody would get a runner on and then the other one would buckle down a little tighter and get three outs."

In the bottom of the tenth, Rockingham County had a chance to load the bases with two outs. The runner heading for third tried to round the corner and score the winning run, but freshman Isaiah Mintz gunned the runner out at the plate from his right-field position.

"It's exciting. That kid has been big all season. I'm excited for what the future holds for him. He held his nerves and made the throw and (sophomore) Boone (Carver) made the catch and made the tag. That's a tough play. They made it look sort of routine. That says something about where their mind and focus levels were."

Pisgah's defense was a highlight of the night, preventing several runs from coming across as the marathon game continued on.

"The way we were pitching and playing defense, we could have won it," Shepard said. "We just didn't. Unfortunately, that's baseball."

Part of that came from sophomore Braden Surrett, who pitched from the ninth inning through the fourteenth inning, allowing just four hits and four walks and striking out six.

"I made the decision to go with Braden when we saw it was going to go deeper, but we didn't expect him to have to throw another complete game," Shepard said. "That might be the best throwing game he's had thus far. Now that I know what he can do, he was already on the radar, but he is going to be something to deal with."

Eventually, Rockingham County walked it off with a double in the 15th inning at 12:22 a.m. — nearly six hours from the time of first pitch.

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