'We've just had the look-ahead approach': Garfield baseball rallies past Chagrin Falls
NEW MIDDLETOWN — Baseball is often considered the ultimate game of failure.
That's only partly true.
It's all about overcoming failure.
Fifth-seeded Garfield baseball mastered that art Monday, rallying from a three-run deficit to top No. 18 Chagrin Falls in a Division III district semifinal at Springfield Local.
"We've just had the look-ahead approach," G-Men sophomore Brandyn Bogucki said. "Just forget about it and move on."
It wasn't just the 3-0 deficit. It was the jams that G-Men junior pitcher Aidan Hill worked through. And it was the fact that Tigers pitcher Will Graham had a no-hitter through four innings.
That said, it's a seven-inning game.
After making an error in the top of the fifth that helped Chagrin Falls score an insurance run, Bogucki bounced back with a key infield hit in the bottom of the inning as Garfield scored three to tie the game.
The sophomore then added a triple to lead off the seventh.
"He can hit anybody," G-Men coach Mike Paes said. "He rarely strikes out and he's fast as all get out."
As for Hill?
Despite struggling with his command early, he managed to toss 5⅔ strong innings and had the walk-off sacrifice fly to bring Bogucki home and send Garfield to Wednesday's district championship game against No. 4 South Range.
"I had a nice talk with Aidan in the middle of the game where everything seemed to be going wrong for him and gave up a couple runs, struck out his second or third time and everything seemed to be going wrong and he just came in, and that's baseball, I told him," Paes said. "I said there's going to be another time where you have to make plays and he came back on the mound and he settled in and he did great."
Garfield's Aidan Hill shows gumption
Aidan Hill was a picture of perseverance.
His game-winning sacrifice fly came after he struck out in each of his first three plate appearances
"I was thinking just put the ball in play, to be honest," Hill said. "After my early plate appearances, I was just thinking, 'Hit the ball.'"
Hill also showed his ability to bounce back on the mound.
After retiring the first four Chagrin Falls batters, including three strikeouts, the junior struggled to get out of the second. On a day in which temperatures hovered in the mid-eighties, Hill threw 30 pitches in the second, including a hit-by-pitch and two walks, but Hill limited the damage, stranding two runners to keep the score at 2-0.
Hill allowed a single run the rest of the way.
"I couldn't find my location with the fastball early," Hill said. "So I started relying on the curve to throw strikes, and just finding that strike zone was key, making them put the ball in play."
Under a scorching sun, Hill kept firing away until he reached the Ohio High School Athletic Association's daily pitch limit: 125.
Usually a starter, senior Eric Geddes told Paes he was ready to relieve.
"I told Paes I wanted it," Geddes said. "I went out and just did a job."
That's an understatement, as the Ohio Dominican commit struck out all four batters he faced, with the first one being the biggest. Coming in with a runner on second and two outs in the sixth, Geddes struck out leadoff hitter Henry Cimperman with a nasty backdoor slider.
"You have to keep him off-balance," Geddes said. "I think I started him off with a fastball and then curveball, and then I threw one in the dirt, so he saw my fastball, curveball, he hadn't seen my slider, so I threw him backdoor and just perfect spot."
While Hill and then Geddes held the Tigers to a single run over the final five innings, the G-Men found their way at the plate. After Graham struck out seven over the first three innings, then sailed through a 1-2-3 fourth, Garet Warnick sparked Garfield's fifth-inning rally by working a full-count walk.
Fellow sophomore Carson Norton followed by drawing another free pass.
The table was thus set for the top of the order, with Bogucki beating out a chopper to second as the first run came home. Geddes drove the second run home with another single, this one a hard grounder that the shortstop kept in the infield with a diving backhand stop, and the tying run scored on a wild pitch.
Bogucki's seventh-inning at-bat was no less resourceful as the sophomore managed to tap a 3-2 change-up back to stay alive before pouncing on a curve and pulling it to deep right for a triple. After a strikeout and an intentional walk, Hill lined the fourth pitch of his at-bat to right with the speedy Bogucki barreling home with the winning run.
"These kids always, man, they fight," Paes said. "It's that family atmosphere where one day you're mad at your brother and all kinds of stuff, but really everyone has got each other's back. Everyone knows that they can get it done. It's a great group of kids to be around."
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Garfield baseball rallies past Chagrin Falls in district semifinal
