Raider baseball steps up at tournament time

There were a few people who had written off the Williamsburg baseball team heading into last week’s Class 2A District 14 tournament at Pleasantville.

The Raiders got the 2023 season off to a great start, ranked among the top 10 teams in the state and winning 14 of their first 21 games. Then came a mid-to-late season slump where they lost eight straight games and 12 of 15 to fall out of the state rankings and end the regular season with a 17-19 record.

Anything can happen come postseason time and how quickly the fortunes have turned for Williamsburg. After a first-round bye, the Raiders whipped East Marshall in the district semifinals, 13-3. Then came a battle for the District 14 championship against No. 10 Pleasantville.

Williamsburg showed no fear in upsetting the Trojans on their home turf, 5-1. That leaves the Raiders 19-19 and one win away from a trip to the state tournamemt. Williamsburg will play West Marshall (27-6) in its first substate final since 2015 Tuesday, July 11, at Pella. The two teams played each other back on May 15, with the Raiders prevailing, 4-1.

Sophomore Nile Sinn pitched a complete game masterpiece, and senior Madox Doehrmann hit a clutch, two-run homer to propel Williamsburg’s upset of Pleasantville, who came into the game with a 28-6 record.

Sinn held the Trojans to three hits, walked two and struck out four. He retired the Trojans in order in the first, third and fourth innings and gave up both of his walks and two of his three hits in the second inning when Pleasantville took a 1-0 lead.

With one swing of the bat in the fourth inning, Doehrmann turned that deficit into a 2-1 lead. After being retired in order in the first three innings, Trey O’Neil led off the fourth inning for Williamsburg with a single. Sam Rich bunted him over to second and with two outs, Doehrmann hit his second home run of the season to put the Raiders up, 2-1.

Williamsburg up two more runs in the fifth inning om back-to-back doubles by Cael Moore and Henry Simmons, the No. 8 and 9 hitters in the lineup, another base hit by O’Neil and a RBI fielder’s choice by Rich.

The Raiders tacked on an insurance run in the sixth inning on a one-out double by Landon Jepson, and two-out RBI double by Moore, his second of the game.

Williamsburg had an easier time beating East Marshall, pounding out 13 hits, highlighted by Sinn’s 4-for-4 performance with a double, homer and four RBI.

Simmons, a freshman, also went deep for the Raiders; Moore and O’Neil added two hits apiece, Doehrmann and Gavin Jensen doubled, and Rich had a RBI single.

O’Neil took care of things on the mound, scattering five hits over six innings and striking out 15 East Marshall batters.