It certainly wasn’t the prettiest of games, but Dixie Heights took advantage of miscues more than Newport Central Catholic did in the 9th Region baseball tournament quarterfinals.
The result is the Colonels first win in the region tournament since 2017 with a 8-5 victory over the Thoroughbreds.
In a game with eight errors and 22 runners left on base, Dixie Heights scored five unearned runs to prevail.
“We took advantage of their miscues and won a ballgame,” Colonels coach Chris Maxwell said. “We’ll take it and advance. We’re a pretty young team, a lot of these guys haven’t been in a big ballgame like this.”
Cole Pullum did just enough on the bump, battling for 5.1 innings, allowing seven hits, two earned runs, striking out four and walking four. Pullem worked through jams and command issues in nearly every inning.
“I trusted my guys to make plays behind me and they delivered. I just had to battle out there, never really felt in control but that’s how it goes sometimes,” Pullum said.
After the ‘Breds plated two in the first two innings with Ian Mann scoring on a Brady Reckers infield single and Luke Runyon’s sac fly RBI to score George Simons, Dixie put a crooked number up in the bottom of the second.
The Colonels can point to three NewCath errors in the frame for their fortunes. First it was Brach Rice getting to third on an error on a Brayden Runion fielder’s choice, then Carson Pullum reaching on an error, scoring Rice and Runion. A sac bunt and a wild pitch then scored Pullum, Ethan Bosley reaching on an infield single, stealing two bases and later scoring on a Sean Mitchell single.
Dixie Heights earned two of their three runs in the fourth. First it was a Mitchell single and getting around the paths thanks to a wild pitch and two passed balls. Owen Lawrence started a two-out rally with a single, followed by a Rice single and Runion bringing them home with a two-run triple to make it 7-2.
Despite all the mishaps and miscues, the Thoroughbreds still put themselves in position to end up putting the winning run at the plate in the sixth and the tying run to the plate in the seventh.
The ‘Breds plated three in the sixth, Ohradzansky reaching on an error to score Nick Rouse. A pair of bases loaded walks then scored Runyon and Ohradzansky to make it 7-5. Simons hit into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded to end the frame.
After Dixie added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth with Mitchell doubling and later scoring on an error, the ‘Breds had yet another chance in the seventh as they put two on. But the end result was stranding their 13th and 14th runners of the game.
“You just can’t give teams more than three outs in an inning like we did tonight. One of the innings we gave them six outs and this late in the year you can’t do that against good teams,” Thoroughbreds coach Jeff Martin said. “We battled back and put ourselves in position to at least tie it so I was happy with that.”
The loss ends NewCath’s season at 12-18.
“I’m losing 10 seniors so we’ve got to reload next year,” Martin said. “Ian Mann is a sophomore, so that’s a good place to start having him back for two more years.”
Mann led NewCath with two of their seven hits, hitting .474 for the season.
Dixie Heights now faces Beechwood on Monday at 8 p.m., looking for some revenge on last year’s 4-3 first round loss to the Tigers. Beechwood defeated Dixie Heights twice during the regular season, 12-11 on March 16 to open up the season and 11-0 on May 8.
“We’ll have to play pretty close to a perfect game. They smacked us two weeks ago so I guess we got them right where we want them. Hopefully they overlook us a little bit,” Maxwell said.
Mitchell led the Colonels with three hits, Luke Abeling, Lawrence and Runion with two apiece as they tallied 11 hits.
NEWPORT CENTRAL CATHOLIC — 110-003-0 — 5-7-4
DIXIE HEIGHTS — 040-301-x — 8-11-4
2B — (DH) Mitchell
3B — (DH) Runion
WP — Pullum. LP — Ohradzansky.
Records: Newport Central Catholic 12-18, Dixie Heights 15-21
