Monday’s game was in danger of slipping away from the Merrill boys, but one swing of the bat with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning-the bases and the count loaded-swung it the Bluejay way.
Mason Reinhardt hit a high liner over the centerfielder’s head to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 win.
“The kids didn’t quit,” MHS coach Brian Artac said. “I kept telling them, ‘This guy (pitcher Coleton Bloch) hasn’t given up an earned run in the eight innings. You’ve got to get this guy a couple of runs. He could go down with a loss. We’ve got to give ‘er.’ Down to the last at-bat, we were battling.”
Merrill had driven in two runs in the 4th inning on Garret Pagel’s double and Brian Stockowitz’s walk.
East tied it in the 6th with a 2-run Scott Kieper double, set up by a throwing error.
Two more throwing errors helped East tally the go-ahead run in the 8th, one on a bunt and the other on a potential double play.
But the Jays gave themselves a chance when Tom Zuelsdorff led off the 8th with a single. After a fielder’s choice, Pagel and Bloch walked, the latter after starting with an 0-2 count. A strike-out pushed it to the last out.
Bloch (5 H, 2 W, 9 K, 3 R, 0 ER in 8 I) pitched a beauty.
The Jays left 10 runners on base, the path filled at the end of the 4th and 6th innings.
“We had our chances,” Artac said. “We tried the squeeze (bunt) with Brian (in the 8th). We got lucky and Juhlke got back to third. We had the hit-and-run on one, and the pitch was head high.”
Ty Grunenwald (2-3) paced MHS to 6 hits.
Tiger two-some
Merrill played a home-and-away series with Marshfield last week and the visitor took both. The Jays survived a wild rally with a 14-12 triumph on Tuesday, then dropped a 5-2 game on Wednesday.
Merrill held a seemingly insurmountable 14-5 lead going into the bottom of the 7th on Tuesday.
“Coleton was pitching well but he ran into some trouble,” Artac said. “I think it was 14-8 when we took him out. We put Gruney in and the first guy hits a grand slam. With two outs, a guy hit a liner to right (field) and Juhlke made a great catch. He was sliding on his belly to make it.”
Artac was impressed with his team’s 17 hits.
“I thought we broke out of our slump, then Wednesday we had three hits,” he said. “Klug wielded a good bat.”
Merrill scored 3 in the 1st with a Juhlke 3-run double, and pushed it to 12-2 with an 8-run 5th, jump-started by Klug’s 2-run homer.
Klug (3-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI), Stockowitz (3-3), Grunenwald (2-3, 2B, 3 R, 2 RBI), Zuelsdorff (2-5, 2 B), Juhlke (2-5, 2B, 3 RBI), Pagel (2-5), and Randall Cruz (1-3, 2 RBI) bumped the offense.
Bloch (11 H, 5 W, 7 K, 11 R, 6 ER in 6-2/3 I) won and Grunenwald (1 H, 1 ER, in 1/3 I) closed.
Merrill slipped ahead 1-0 on Wednesday. Marshfield tied it in the 3rd, added solo runs in the 4th and 5th, and tacked on 2 more in the 6th. The Jays stranded the bases loaded in the 3rd and couldn’t break through until scoring once in the 7th.
“We had guys on base, but our hitting approach was not good,” Artac said. “It was cold-miserable weather, and both teams walked nine guys.”
Reinhardt went 2-3 for Merrill and Klug had the only other hit.
Seth Collins (4 H, 8 W, 2 K, 5 R, 3 ER in 6 I) lost, and Juhlke (1 H, 1 W, 0 R in 1 I) finished.
Merrill was at 2-3 in conference and overall, Marshfield was at 1-3 and 3-6, while East was 0-2 and 3-2.