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Venghaus sends Mt. Pleasant past Fairfield on 2nd day of district opener
Weather delay walk-off
Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield met up for the Class 3A District 5 quarterfinals at 7 p.m., on Friday night. It was over 19 hours later when the game finally finished on a walk-off single by Mt. Pleasant’s Zerek Venghaus.
Venghaus stepped to the plate around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday after the game was rain delayed in extra innings on Friday night. With the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the ninth, he sent a line drive past the infield to give Mt. Pleasant a 4-3 win.
“We had bases loaded and no outs,” Venghaus said. “That's like anybody's dream.”
Venghaus was quite literally the man of the hour on Saturday, as not only did he score the walk off, but he took a win on the mound. Venghaus had to fight off the Fairfield lineup in the top of the ninth to put the Panthers in position to win it.
“I was a little nervous for sure,” Venghaus said. “I threw the first one to the backstop, but then the nerves settled in and I started throwing strikes.”
Flash back to Friday night, and it was Fairfield that took an early lead. With ace pitcher Tate Allen on the mound, the Trojan lineup gave their number one arm a two-run cushion in the third inning, when Landon Nodurft scored one run on a two-out RBI bloop single, and Cody Birlson scored the second on a double.
Much like the Trojans, it took a couple of two-out hits for Mt. Pleasant to tie things up. Carter Amos hit an RBI double, and Garrett Cook followed with an RBI double of his own to knot things up at 2-2.
“The seniors are the kids that you hope carry you,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Brent Broeker. “This last game, they did.”
Seniors got all four RBIs for the Panthers. The third of those came in the bottom of the sixth inning when Amos delivered again, this time with a go-ahead RBI double that scored J.C. Sitar from third base.
However, Mt. Pleasant’s lead didn’t last long. Tallon Bates came in to relieve Allen and shut the Panthers down for the rest of the sixth inning, and then it was Bates again who delivered in the top of the seventh, drawing a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch to tie the game at 3-3.
“Tallon was good for us last night,” said Fairfield head coach Josh Allison. “It was great to see, but it's kind of to be expected.”
Mt. Pleasant’s Jake Ensminger, who relieved starting pitcher Ben Newton, got a strikeout to end the top of the seventh, and Mt. Pleasant had the chance to win, all the while a steady rain began to come down from the sky.
Bates went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh, and the two rivals headed to a rain-soaked eighth inning. Ensminger forced a double play to end the top of the eighth, and Mt. Pleasant put up a big threat in the bottom of the inning.
Sitar was hit by the pitch again, this time with one out, and courtesy runner Briar Bender nearly made it to third on a botched pick off attempt that sent him flying around second as the ball trickled into right field. Fairfield first baseman Isaac Harris launched a throw across the diamond to Dain Burkhart at third, who applied the tag for the second out. Mt. Pleasant, however, would put the next two batters on base with walks.
Garrett Cook stood at the plate with the rain coming down much harder and took the first pitch by Bates for ball one. Following that pitch, the game was put on a delay, and the two teams didn’t get back on the field until 2 p.m. on Saturday.
“It was really something to play eight innings, and then we have to go home and get ready to play the same game the next day,” said Amos, who was on first base when the postponement was called.
The rain delay put both coaches to the test.
“I tried to work through a lot of different scenarios,” Allison said. “It took a little while to get it all figured out.”
Fairfield went with Aidan Kreuter to finish things out on Saturday. He came in and threw three-straight strikes to get out of the bottom of the eighth. Fairfield had two runners on in the top of the ninth, but Venghaus worked out of it, and Mt. Pleasant was back up with a chance to win it.
Newton led off the ninth by being hit by the pitch on a two-strike count. Payson Coleman worked a four-pitch walk, and sophomore Zach Newton, who was in the lineup for the absent Payton Hagans, laid down a bunt that loaded the bases on a Trojan error.
“It was his first game hitting in varsity, and he laid down a really tough bunt for us,” Amos said. “And the other two just really grinded their at-bats.”
That left Venghaus to play clean up. It took just one more pitch for the Panthers to finally earn the chance to celebrate.
“He did exactly what a senior does,” Broeker said. “He stepped up there and hit a ball hard.”
Amos finished the night 2-for-3 with two doubles and two RBIs. Cook was 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Venghaus went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
Fairfield’s Nodurft went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Birlson was 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI.
Mt. Pleasant (13-11) has a short time to celebrate. The Panthers play in the semifinals at No. 4 Marion (28-6) on Monday night. Fairfield finished its season 15-19.
“I wish it would have happened last night,” said Venghaus. “But you can't control the weather.”
