IBERIA—The Plato Eagles don’t give up, but neither does Iberia left fielder Jerron Pemberton.
Pemberton, Iberia’s No. 9 hitter, slammed a two-out double off the wall that scored second baseman Brooks Baker, giving the top-seeded Rangers an 8-7 walk-off win in Tuesday night’s Class 2 District 8 semifinal game at Iberia’s Hooper Field.
“Jerron’s a difference maker,” said Iberia head coach Jason Morris of his left fielder. “He comes through for us, even as the nine hitter.”
The double capped a three-RBI night for Pemberton, who also put down a perfect squeeze bunt in the third that scored not one, but two runs.
But Pemberton’s heroics in the seventh might not have happened if Plato hadn’t come back—again.
After going down 3-1 on Monday against Dixon, the fourth-seeded Eagles got three runs on three hits in the bottom of the sixth to take a 4-3 lead and eventually win the game by that margin.
On Tuesday, the Eagles (15-4) needed four rather than two. The Rangers (14-9) were up 7-3 going into the top of the seventh, after breaking a 3-3 tie in the fifth with four runs on two doubles from Austin Brown and Levi Gardner.
The Rangers put the ball back into the hands of starter Cody Moore to close out the game.
Moore gave up a home run in the second to Dustin Utley, but looked solid otherwise—Plato’s two runs in the fourth were the result of a throwing error.
But Moore couldn’t find the strike zone in the seventh.
He walked center fielder Timothy Bule, and after a wild pitch to Kory Cobb, Morris removed Moore in favor of Trey Baumgardner.
When all was said and done, Moore gave up four runs on six hits, striking out six and walking one.
In removing Moore, the Rangers didn’t want to take any chances—not after what the Eagles did against Dixon.
“That’s Plato,” Morris said. “That’s coach [Mark] Vaughn. They don’t quit.”
They certainly didn’t against Trey Baumgardner—they barely needed to move the bats from their shoulders.
Baumgardner couldn’t find the plate, either. He walked Cobb and then walked William Young to load the bases.
Plato coach Mark Vaughn said he didn’t have a specific strategy for that inning, but his players knew what to do.
“In that situation, they know not to swing until they see strikes,” he said. “We just needed to get on base.”
When Baumgardner couldn’t throw strikes, Gardner came in for relief.
He got Shayne Barton to hit a ground ball to short, but the Iberia shortstop bobbled the ball and a run scored.
The next batter, Brain Beck, hit another grounder, which took a huge hop when it reached the third-base grass and shot over the fence for a ground-rule double. That made it 7-6 Iberia, and there were still none out for the Eagles.
Iberia went to the bullpen again, this time bringing in Dustin Ewers with runners on second and third.
Mitchell Anthony singled and the comeback was complete.
Morris said that he doesn’t regret bringing in all three pitchers, especially Baumgardner.
“Trey’s been coming in for us in this situation all season,” Morris said. “He’ll shake it off.”
He said that neither Baumgardner nor Ewers had thrown in almost ten days.
“We were going to run a bullpen session on Monday but we decided against it because I wasn’t sure if we’d need those guys,” he said.
Iberia assistant coach Jason Trusty thought the rain-altered schedule played a part.
“[This schedule] is definitely testing the strengths of pitching staffs,” he said.
Instead of playing Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, as originally planned, thunderstorms on Friday night made Hooper Field unplayable on Saturday, necessitating the three-day-in-a-row schedule.
After giving up the run, Ewers settled in and struck out the next two Plato hitters and forced the third to ground out to get the Rangers out of the inning tied at 7.
Plato pitcher Dustin Utley, the winner of Monday’s game who had come in to relieve Mitchell Anthony, got the first two outs in the bottom half of the inning and it looked like the teams might play extras.
But then Baker singled, Pemberton ended the game and Iberia fans let out a sigh of relief by madly honking their car horns.
“We definitely blew some opportunities to add some more runs and avoid all this,” Morris said.
Vaughn said he was proud of his team for battling back.
“Sometimes, though, it isn’t meant to be,” he said,
He did, however, add that his 15-4 Eagles could have benefitted from a better seeding.
“I only lost one senior from last season, and we beat Eugene last year,” he said.
Eugene came into the tournament at 10-9.
“But my kids never gave up today,” he said.
Morris said that he wasn’t sure who would start today’s championship game, but he has options.
And he won’t hesitate to use the same relievers in similar situations.
“I’ll throw them back out there,” he said. “We always feel like we have a chance with our pitchers.”
Iberia faces third-seeded Eugene today in the district championship game, which will begin at 5 p.m.
Linescore R H E
(4) Plato 0 1 0 2 0 0 4 7 8 2
(1) Iberia 0 3 0 0 4 0 1 8 7 3
WP: Dustin Ewers (2-0): 1 IP, 1 R (0 ER), 1 H 2 K
LP: Dustin Utley
(3) Eugene 8, (2) Conway 1
In the other semifinal, Eugene’s Joe Joungmeyer struck out 11 to send the Eagles to the district championship game.
Conway got one hit off of him, but otherwise struggled—Bears’ starter Dylan Brawley lasted only 1 1/3 inning before being relieved by Michael Eyman.
Eugene improves to 12-9, while Conway ends its season at 16-8.
