Cyclones walk off in dramatic fashion, 4-3
In the bottom of the seventh inning in a game where the HCHS Cyclones trailed 3-2 with one out, Junior Cyclone Brett Heese stepped to the plate and delivered a walk-off 2-run single to center field off of Sophomore Sioux City East Black Raider Quinton Ashcraft winning the game 4-3 as the Cyclones stormed the field to jump on the back of Heese for their 22nd win of the season.
“It felt good,” Heese said. “I struggled at the plate and I was a little passive early on in the game, but shook that off. He [Ashcraft] threw a fastball and I just crushed it right up the middle.”
Senior Cyclone Caleb Schleis took the mound to start the game for his team and ran into some early trouble when the Black Raiders leadoff hitter Jax Theeler launched an opposite field home run over the left field fence just three pitches into the game to give his team a 1-0 lead.
Schleis had to battle in the top of the second and third inning throwing a lot of pitches as he had 59 after three innings, but kept his team in the game as they were still trailing 1-0 heading into the bottom of the third.
“He gave up that leadoff home run,” said Cyclone Head Coach Heath Stein of Schleis. “They have a great hitting team, so he had to make quality pitches throughout to keep us right there in the ball game, even though we weren’t putting up a lot of runs.”
The Cyclones tied the game at one in the bottom of the third when Senior Matthew Sorfonden connected at the plate for a home run down the left field line that went right over the foul pole.
“Sorfonden put a good swing on that ball,” Stein said. “I’m glad it stayed fair and we hit a couple of balls hard that could have turned into some runs. Overall good at bats.”
Following Sorfonden’s home run, it didn’t take the Black Raider offense long to get their lead back when in the top of the fourth, Freshman Christopher Ford had a 1-out RBI single putting his team ahead 2-1.
In the top of the fifth inning, Schleis was back on the mound and allowed the first two Black Raiders hitters to reach base, but Stein removed him for Senior Brock Lemrick. Sophomore Black Raider Logan Cherkas connected for a base hit off Lemrick, but that run was charged to Schleis as the Raiders extended their lead to 3-1. Following Cherkas’ hit, Lemrick picked off Theeler at second back and struck out Freshman Kason Clayborne to get his team back in the dugout down by two.
“Lemrick was kind of a bullpen guy last year, so he’s kind of used to that role,” Stein said. “He came in and executed pitch after pitch.”
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Freshman Colton Schneider got his team one of those back when he hit an RBI single scoring eighth grader Foxx Argotsinger, putting his team down 3-2.
When Lemrick returned to the mound in the top of the sixth inning, he shut down the Black Raider offense needing just 13 pitches to retire the side.
“Lemrick, he likes to get loud on the mound, but gets us cooking, plays hard, and is fun to be around,” Heese said.
Lemrick came back out for the top of the seventh and threw just ten pitches to keep his team within striking distance going into the bottom of the seventh inning.
When the bottom half of the inning began, Argotsinger drew a leadoff walk, following by Sorfonden getting hit by a pitch. Senior Quinn Koesters poped up for the first out, Schneider was walked intentionally to load the bases, and following Schneider’s walk, Heese was the hero winning the game with a walk-off single.
“We had a talk before he went to the plate and I said ‘hey stay within yourself, be confident, stay in your routine and things we’re working on’ and he executed that breaking ball,” Stein said of Heese’s walk off.
The Cyclones move to 22-7 overall on the season, and return to action Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m. against a Hawkeye Ten rival in the 19-3 Clarinda Cardinals, who have won four consecutive games. Offensively, the Cardinals are led by Cole Baumgart with 32 hits, and Creighton Tuzzio with 36 runs batted in and a .429 batting average. On the mound, Tuzzio has seven wins and 72 strikeouts with a 1.01 earned run average in 34 2/3 innings pitched.
“We’ve just got to get out and start off the game really well and get the bats hot right away,” Heese said. “We’ve been kind of a middle inning game type of team.”