Hawks walk-off another win

DONNELLSON – If Bobby Reid landing on your football field in a spangled parachute isn’t enough to tell you it’s gonna be a good night, the Central Lee Hawks walk-off wins over Van Buren sure did.
Hunter Elin, down in the count 1-2, laced an RBI game-winner into left field just passed the Warrior’s Izaak Loeffler at third to score Bo Herdrich from second and give Central Lee their fifth win in a row.
It was the second walk-off win for the Hawks this year.
“We had runners on 2nd and 1st and I was really just trying to move them over. That was my game plan. When you get down 1-2 in the count, you choke up and I was able to hit it down the line with Bo stealing,” Edlin said.
He said a plate appearance with one out in the bottom the seventh in a tie game and runners on changes  hitting strategy.
“It definitely changes your perspective on things with your approach. You get in a hole, you choke up, take a hack, and stay alive,” Edlin said.
Going into the inning tied 2-2, Blake Davis took a homerun hack at the first pitch he saw and fouled it off before popping out to right field. Herdrich drew a walk. Kayden Calfee then had what head coach Shane Weirather called a “beautiful” at-bat, working a 2-1 count before driving a single to right moving Herdrich into scoring position.
Weirather had Herdrich on the move on the pitch Edlin drove into left to allow the senior to come all the way around with the game-winner.
“Executing there at the end. Bo gets on, and Calfee had a beautiful hit to right field, and then Hunter comes through with just what we needed. We executed there at the end of the game, but wholly….,” he said.
“It’s tough. You allow two runs and I think our pitchers struggled. How many times did we have the bases loaded and have to pitch out of it? We need to be sharper on the mound, despite only allowing two runs,” he said.

The Hawks opened the scoring when Edlin drove in Blake Davis with a bases loaded sacrifice to center. Van Buren’s Isaiah Meek would work out of the trouble in the first and the Warriors would tie things up in the second when Herdrich walked in a run. He would then work out of trouble on a grounder to short.
Herdrich would put the Hawks back on top in the bottom of the third on a homer to left on Meeks' first offering of the bottom half. Central Lee would put two on after Herdrich’s blast, but a rare 1-5-3 double play wiped the inning. Gage Van Ausdall grounded back to Meeks who threw to third and the relay back to first was in time to get Van Ausdall.
The Hawks would carry the 2-1 lead into the fifth inning when Van Buren would score with two outs, helped by a couple fielding errors. Edlin, who came on in relief of Herdrich and worked a strikeout to end the inning at 2-2, setting up the heroics in the seventh.
Davis tripled to open the Hawks' half of the fifth, but he was stranded there, much to the chagrin of Weirather.
“Open with a triple and we don’t get that run in. We gotta be better. We just needed a ground ball there and he’s in,” Weirather said.
Davis was warming up in the seventh inning with Caedon Newton pitching and two men on, but Newton got a strikeout to end the Warriors' threat. Weirather said he was happy Davis didn’t have to throw.
“Absolutely, that’s a big one. We wanted to save Blake for tomorrow. We need some confidence going to Notre Dame and we’ve been saving Blake for that all week,” he said.
The Hawks travel to Burlington Notre Dame (6-2, 6-2) Friday night. The Nikes are 5-0 on the road but have struggled at home, going just 1-2 in Burlington. Central Lee is also 5-0 on the road.
Herdrich and Calfee both had two hits on the night Thursday.  Herdrich walked twice and scored twice. He also went three innings, allowing one run, unearned, on three hits, while walking four, and striking out four. Edlin went 3 2/3 innings, allowing three hits and one run while fanning two and walking one. Newton got the win on 1/3 of an inning. He struck out one and walked one.
The win is the fifth in a row for Central Lee and the sixth of the last seven. The Hawks are now 8-2 overall and 4-2 in the SEISC South.