Junior Evan Sperling’s late game heroics on offense and defense carried Grafton’s baseball team past the Kings Fork Bulldogs in the final three innings for a 6-4 win in the 4A South regional semifinal Wednesday.
The tightly contested contest featured four lead changes during the course of the game as the two teams fought hard for a coveted state tournament berth.
“That was a battle, hats off to the Kings Fork guys,” Clippers Coach Matt Lewellen said after the game. “This was a team win, everyone played really well. This game was a lot of fun. Stressful, but fun.”
The hits came early and often for both teams last night. Duke Santora’s single to center field gave the Bulldogs their first base hit in the first inning. Santora stole second base, then scored on teammate Cal Bailey’s single down the third base line for the first run of the game.
The Clippers answered quickly in the bottom of the first inning with two runs of their own. Junior Ricks Dearing crossed the plate first for the Clippers, scoring from second after a deep RBI triple to left field from Spencer Brown got away from the Kings Fork left fielder. Brown later scored the second run for the Clippers on a sacrifice fly to right field from third baseman Gray Harris.
Kings Fork regained the lead in the third inning, as they were able to score two more Bulldog runners. They added another run in the fourth inning after a ground rule double bounced fair then over the side of the right field fence. Tim Hairsine would score from second base on the play, putting Kings Fork up by two runs midway through the fourth inning.
Harris scored for the Clippers in the bottom of the fourth after a walk put him on base, a steal got him to second, a Ryan Hiser sacrifice fly sent him to third, and an RBI single from Jordan Sprouse brought him home to put the Clippers within one run of tying with three innings remaining.
Sophomore DJ Dobbins was able to tie the game in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly from Brown.
Sperling shut down the Kings Fork offense for the final three innings, striking out five batters and allowing two hits.
“I let my team down the first couple of innings and I knew that I had to step up,” Sperling said after the game.
Sperling was the first batter up in the bottom of the sixth inning for the Clippers. As Sperling walked out of the dugout, Lewellen joked to his staff, “It would sure be nice if Evan lost one right here.” Moments later, Sperling proved his coach prophetic, hitting a solo home run over the center field wall to put his team ahead 5-4.
Zach Lechthaler, hit by a pitch earlier in the inning, would score the final run of the game by stealing second base, third base and home plate.
Sperling struck out two more batters in the seventh inning to advance the Clippers to Friday’s regional championship, where they will face Hanover in a 7 p.m. game on the road.
Grafton 6 Kings Fork 4
Kings Fork – 102;100;0 – 7 4 1
Grafton – 200;112 – 10 6 1
WP: Sperling 7 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 7 SO
LP: Boyd
Kings Fork – Santora 3-4 (R)
Grafton – Sperling 2-3 (HR), Dearing 1-4 (R), Brown 1-3 (R, 2 RBI)
