Williamson, White lead walk-off winner

It was a wild one at Mapleleaf Athletic Complex on Thursday, and thanks to a clutch night from the bottom of the Mt. Pleasant lineup, the Panthers came out on top, giving them their eighth-straight win and head coach Brent Broeker his 300th career win.

After forcing extra innings on a two-out game-tying double by Chase Williamson in the bottom of the seventh, Mt. Pleasant loaded the bases in the eighth. Trace White worked a walk with the bases juiced to score the game-winning run, giving the Panthers a 9-8 win in eight.

Mt. Pleasant had to climb back from 6-0 deficit early in the game. The Panthers went into the bottom of the second inning trailing by six, but five runs in the half inning helped the Panthers get within one.

White scored the first run of the game after a throwing error by the Mediapolis right fielder. Williamson cut the lead to 6-2 with an RBI groundout. Nik Coble brought two home with a bloop single, and Jaxon Hoyle sent an RBI single into right.

In the third, Bryce Anderson tied the game with an RBI double to left. That scored White and knotted the game at 6-6.

The game stayed tied at 6-6 until the bottom of the sixth inning. Williamson led of the inning with a single, stole two bases and came home on a sacrifice fly by Coble, narrowly escaping a tag attempt by the catcher on a throw in from the outfield. After six, Mt. Pleasant led 7-6.

Mediapolis' Nick Ensminger stung the Panthers in the top of the seventh. With two outs and two on, Ensminger sent a double down the left field line, scoring two and giving the Bulldogs the lead back, 8-7.

Mt. Pleasant had two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the second but once again, the bottom of the lineup came through. Anderson battled to get a bases-loaded walk. Dalton Gardener singled on a sharp ground ball off the third basemen, and that put runners on first and second for Williamson.

Williamson looped one right down the line, putting enough spin on the ball to bounce it away from the third baseman's reach. Anderson scampered around to score, courtesy runner Brennen Bender dove into third and Williamson ended up on second with the game tied at 8-8.

'It was nervewracking at first,” said Williamson after the game. 'Pretty sure I thought it was foul, but like Broek says, ‘sometimes the baseball gods are with you.' That's what happened there.”

Corbin Broeker was narrowly thrown out on a potential game-winning infield single, which sent the game into extra innings. A scoreless top of the eighth by Mediapolis put the Panthers in position to get the win.

In the bottom half, Coble led off with a walk. Clayton Lowery got on with an infield single, and after a successful sacrifice bunt by Hoyle, Chase Lamm was intentionally walked. That loaded the bags for White with just one down.

White worked a 3-1 count after four pitches and laid off a ball out of the zone, bringing home the win for Mt. Pleasant.

'We've been preaching that,” said head Coach Broeker after the game. 'When you're in the driver's seat in a situation like that where the bases are loaded and he's got to pitch to you, look for a pitch in a location. Trace did a good job. He wasn't chasing anything and got the walk for us, got the RBI and got the win.”

Coble finished with three RBIs to lead the offense. Williamson had two RBIs. Gardner, White, Anderson and Hoyle each finished with one. Lowery went 4-5 at the plate.

Lowery threw the first five innings, giving up six runs (five earned) on four hits and seven walks, while striking out six batters. White gave up two unearned runs over one and two-thirds innings, and Coble pitched one and one-third shutout innings to pick up the win. After the game, Coach Broeker talked about the bottom of his lineup, which has been a big aid to what is now an eight-game winning streak.

'Six-seven-eight-nine have been really swinging it well for us,” Broeker said. '(Williamson) got a really good pitch to hit and just drove it down the line to tie it up for us. He did a good job with that AB, and then in the eighth, we had the top up for us. That's where you want to be with the game on the line, so it worked out well.”

Mt. Pleasant is now 14-5 on the year. They have a huge doubleheader against Washington tonight (Thursday) at 5:30 p.m.