High School Baseball: Toledo rallies late to survive District scrap with Onalaska
PHOTO GALLERY — Riverhawks post seven-run sixth to topple Loggers 10-7 at Long Beach
Skyler Smith for BlastZoneMedia.com / blastzonenews@gmail.com
2B Prep Baseball / Report
LONG BEACH — Toledo found itself trailing late in the game Saturday with its District playoff opener beginning to slip away. The Onalaska Loggers had been pesky all morning, and as high noon came and went it looked more and more likely that there might be an upset at the beach.
But the Riverhawks answered with seven runs in the sixth inning, rallying past Onalaska 10-7 in a 2B District IV loser-out playoff game on Tinker Field in Long Beach.
“We just had confidence the game wasn’t dead until we woke up,” Toledo’s Nico Acosta said.
The Riverhawks opened that definitive inning with a walk and back-to-back singles before consecutive RBI knocks suddenly cut the deficit to 7-5. With the action on the base paths Toledo’s dugout began to stir.
Moments later, Nico Acosta ripped a bases-clearing double down the left-field line and advanced to third on a throwing error to highlight a seven-run sixth inning where Toledo erases the deficit and reclaimed control of the game for good.
Toledo’s dugout erupted after the hit, while the crowd along the third-base line came to life as the Riverhawks surged back into the lead late.
“I knew if it started inside, the pitch was probably going to end up in the middle,” Nico Acosta said. “I just turned on it.”
Toledo head coach Mack Gaul said that never-say-die mentality has followed the Riverhawks throughout the season.
“We’re only down, but never out,” Gaul said.
The No. 4 seeded Riverhawks jumped out early, using walks and timely hitting to manufacture the game’s first run. Toledo would stacks runs later in the game, but the middle innings were full of trepidation for the Cheese Town nine.
As the No. 8 seed out of the Central 2B League, Onalaska was playing with house money in the tournament, and the Loggers refused to et things spiral out of control right away. That wouldn’t happen until much later in the ballgame.
After falling behind early, the Loggers answered with their biggest swing of the afternoon. That shot in the arm arrived when Rowdy Lyons delivered a triple that turned into a Little League style inside-the-park home run following an outfield error, helping swing momentum toward Onalaska and casting a shadow of doubt over the Toledo side of the field..
“The whole message was battle with these guys,” Onalaska head coach Weylin Womack said. “I felt like we did that pretty well today.”
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