Nelson County/Midkota Chargers
MAYVILLE — Zach Gibson just wanted to get the bunt down.
Tied at a run apiece in the bottom of the seventh, Nelson County/Midkota had yet to lead in Saturday’s game. Gibson, who’d collected two of the Chargers’ four hits on the day, was up in a prime spot with two runners on and nobody out.
“I just needed to get that bunt down and not pop it up,” Gibson said, “so we get those runners to third and second.”
He placed the bunt. All seemed to be going to plan. But the pitcher mishandled it, then threw it down the right field line in a desperate move to retire Gibson. Lakin Ronningen, the runner from second, sprinted home and gave Nelson County the victory it had been fighting for all afternoon.
There were cheers. There was celebrating. There were jokes and laughter in the postgame huddle. The Chargers were walk-off winners.
“Oh, yeah, man. Dude, I can’t — it’s a really good feeling,” head coach Logan Lund said with a smile on his face after the game. “We just had to keep battling.”
Nelson County received a stellar performance from right-hander Kyle Johnson to start the game. He allowed just one run in six-plus innings, striking out three while permitting six hits and three walks.
“Kyle did exactly what we planned on him doing,” Lund said. “He’s a competitor. He throws a lot of strikes. Just rely on your defense to make plays behind you.”
But the Chargers didn’t score until the bottom of the sixth, and they nearly relinquished the tied score in the top of the seventh. A magic act by the team’s ace, Preston Lee, and a little small ball in the bottom of the seventh gave No. 2-seeded Nelson County (6-5) the 2-1 win over No. 3 Hillsboro/Central Valley (6-14) in the first round of the double-elimination Region 2 tournament at Scott Berry Field. The Chargers will face the winner of No. 1 Thompson vs. No. 4 May-Port-C-G on Monday.
“This is a great momentum booster,” Gibson said. “We’re coming off a win. Thompson’s a tough team, so we’re just gonna use this momentum to go beat ‘em.”
Gibson was Johnson’s catcher, and he echoed Lund’s praise of Johnson’s ability to throw strikes. He retired the side in order during both the first and third innings. The first two runners reached in the second inning, but Johnson escaped the jam, capped by a nice catch from right fielder Brody Hoyt.
The Chargers’ offense, meanwhile, couldn’t take advantage of some early opportunities. They wasted a Gibson double in the first, then stranded two runners in each of the second and third innings. Burros pitcher Chase Haffely consistently kept the ball on the outer half of the plate and struck out seven over his six-plus innings of work.
“He did a really good job of mixing speeds and locating,” Lund said. “I just kept telling the guys, ‘Hey, just wait for your chance. Maybe we might need them to make a mistake.’”
The game’s first run scored on a soft bloop hit to right field in the top of the fourth. It was an unlucky blow for Johnson, although he also lost the zone a bit and issued two walks in the inning. After the second walk, with Nelson County down 1-0, Lund made a visit to the mound.
“Honestly, I just wanted to give him a little bit of a break,” Lund said. “He works pretty quick. A bleeder like that, there’s nothing you’re gonna do about it. It’s how baseball works. Just wanted to calm him down.”
Johnson did exactly that, and prevented the frame from spiraling. He worked around a couple more hits in the fifth, this time getting an impressive catch from Lee in center field. Lee initially got a bad read on it and took a step in, but he backtracked quickly enough to grab it. It was the second notable defensive play to keep the game close.
“We’ve actually got a couple guys in a little bit of an uncomfortable spot on defense,”
Lund said. “But they played their tail off. And they do the best they can. They maybe won’t make every single great play or run down every single ball in the gap, but Preston’s a leader out in center.”
Johnson navigated a one-out double in the top of sixth. He ended the frame by throwing a changeup to record his third strikeout of the afternoon.
The Chargers tied the game in the bottom half on a throwing error by the second baseman. Ross Thompson, who was hit by a pitch, scored on a ball hit by Lee. It was exactly as Lund prophesied: They might need to wait for the Burros to make a mistake, and that’s precisely what happened.
Johnson came back out for the seventh, but a leadoff double put him in an immediate jam. So Lund elected to take him out after 93 pitches.
“I wanted to stick with Kyle so bad. It was his game,” Lund said. “But I love Kyle. He’s just a great competitor and a great kid.”
The Chargers brought their ace, Lee, in from center field to record the most vital outs of the game thus far. The short-statured left-hander surrendered a soft single to shallow center, squeezing the situation even tighter.
But somehow, some way, Lee kept the game tied. After a stolen base, the Chargers intentionally walked the bases loaded with one out. They recorded a critical fielder’s choice out at the plate, then ended the inning on a pitch that Lee perfectly spotted in the lower part of the zone.
Poof. The traffic jam was zapped in an instant.
“I was a little nervous,” Lund said. “But [Lee]’s our guy, and we needed to use him. He’s got a great sense of pitches.”
In a way, the Chargers’ seventh-inning rally was just like their sixth-inning one: It started with a hit by pitch, and a run came home on an error. Ronningen looked about as happy as one could be after getting hit by a baseball, and he moved to second on a single by Brody Rainsberry.
With a 1-0 count on Gibson, the Burros held a meeting at the mound. But whatever they said, it didn’t work. Gibson laid down the bunt, Haffely threw it away and the rest is history.
“Coach brought us in and said, “Get it done, any way how,’” Gibson said. “And then that’s what we did.”
It brought a tinge of relief to this Nelson County club, which played a tight game but ultimately proved to be the cleaner and more resilient team. Now, it’ll look to keep that momentum rolling through the rest of the Region 2 tournament and, ideally, the playoffs as a whole.
“I just want us to compete. That’s been the message all year,” Lund said. “What can you do to flip the switch and be competitive every single pitch? Have fun. Compete. Play with energy. And you never know; it’s a funny game. We didn’t really win that one the way that we wanted to, necessarily — but just stay in the ballgame, you never know what happens.”
