Published: September 10, 2008 01:41 pm      

Triple play saves day for Latta

Latta — When Latta coach Eddie Collins called Taylor Dunigan out of the bullpen and into a huge jam in the sixth inning of Saturday’s third-place game with Vanoss at the Latta Fall Baseball Tournament, he was hoping his freshman lefty would get out of the inning in stages.

“In that situation, what you want is a strikeout, then a double play,” Collins said.

Instead, Dunigan — facing a bases-loaded, nobody-out dilemma in an 8-7 game — solved all the Panthers’ problems with one pitch. Vanoss clean-up hitter Casey Henry — the first batter Dunigan faced — lifted a 3-2 offering to medium right field for what, in most cases, would have been a game-tying sacrifice fly. But Latta right fielder Tyler Reeves fired a perfect one-hop strike to catcher Ryan Stoup, who applied the tag on Zac Scoggin at the plate for the second out.

Stoup then fired to second base to retire Dexter Priest as he tried to advance from first to complete an unusual 9-2-4 triple play that Collins said was the first recorded by one of his teams in the almost three decades he has coached the Panthers.

“I’d never had one, and that shouldn’t have been one, either,” Collins said after the game. “(Stoup) was supposed to call time out after the play at the plate.”

The heroics weren’t over for Dunigan, though. After Ryan Postoak reached on the fifth Latta error of the afternoon leading off the Vanoss seventh, Dunigan picked him off first base before striking out Brett Lamb (3-for-3 to that point) and Dal Willoughby to end the game and earn the six-out save.

“He throws strikes,” Collins said of his reason for bringing in Dunigan in relief of starter Mike Hood (3-1). “He’s only had one bad game all season.”

In the consolation game, Stonewall got a complete-game effort from junior ace Josh Scribner and outlasted Ripley, 6-5.

Third Place

Latta 8, Vanoss 7

The Wolves and Panthers combined for eight errors, and in most cases each team fed off the other’s mistakes. Latta errors led to three unearned runs, and three of the Panthers’ first five runs were the result of three errors by the Wolves — two in the first to help Latta to a 1-0 lead and two more in the third to to fuel a two-run rally that broke a 3-3 tie.

The Panthers (7-6) built their lead to 8-4 with a three-run fourth highlighted by a leadoff double by Seyth Roebuck and a two-run single by junior Wacey Henderson, who returned to the lineup Friday after missing six games with a rib injury. Henderson’s hustling two-out fly-ball double to right-center in the first led to Latta’s first run, he scored on a groundout by Reeves to cap the fourth-inning rally, and he singled with one out in the sixth to account for half of the Panthers’ six hits off Vanoss starter Casey Henry and reliever Dexter Priest.

Vanoss answered Latta’s fourth-inning rally with two runs in the fifth with the help of two Latta errors and on just one hit — Lamb’s one-out RBI single to center — before scoring an ugly run in the sixth without beneift of a hit at all.

Seth Wulfert reached on Stoup’s throwing error after swinging and missing on a third strike in the dirt leading off the sixth, Zac Scoggin walked, and Hood was too late on a throw to first on Eric Osborn’s bunt to load the bases. Priest then walked on four pitches to force home a run, trim the Latta lead to 8-7 and bring on Dunigan for the wild finish to the inning.

“We have to get SO much better defensively,” Collins said. “We can’t hit enough to overcome bone-headedness like that. We made SUCH bad decisions defensively.”

A two-run single by sophomore Tyler Pogue in the bottom of the second inning put Latta up 3-0, then Vanoss tied it with three runs (two earned) in the top of the third with the help of the first Latta miscue of the game. Lamb’s two-run single was the big hit for the Wolves in the inning.

Lamb finished 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs, and Scoggin added two singles to account for all but two of the Wolves’ hits. Nick Trivitt also doubled and scored, and Henry had the other hit (a pop fly single that landed among three Latta fielders in shallow left-center) and scored twice.

Hood doubled home a run in Latta’s two-run third inning, and sophomore Tyler Pogue stroked a big one-out double to right-center in the second to stake Hood to the early 3-0 lead. Coming off an impressive complete game effort in a win over Soper in last Saturday’s third-place game at the Roff Fall Tournament, Hood struck out 10 in five-plus innings.

Latta returns to action Monday, hosting Class B No. 2 Red Oak, while Vanoss will entertain Wanette. Both games start at 4:30 p.m.

Consolation

Stonewall 6, Ripley 5

Stonewall (8-7) carried a 6-3 lead to the seventh, when Ripley scored twice and had the tying run at third with two outs. But Scribner (2-2) struck out Ripley five-hole hitter Michael Blose looking at a 2-2 breaking pitch to seal the win.

Dakota McCollum, Zeke Munday and Scribner had two hits apiece to pace a nine-hit Stonewall attack. Munday had an RBI double in a two-run first inning that tied the score after Ripley had scored twice in the top of the first, and he also had a tie-breaking RBI single in the fourth to put the Longhorns up 4-3.

Scribner also drove in four runs with a sacrifice fly in the and a single in the fifth. He allowed five hits and struck out five.