Guthrie wins 9 inning thriller against Shawnee, 11-10

It took 9 innings and nearly three hours to complete, but the Guthrie baseball team collected a big win in the early parts of the 2012 season Wednesday evening.

The 7th ranked BlueJays rallied for four runs in the seventh inning to tie the game at 10-10 and eventually winning with a pass ball to defeat the 4th ranked Shawnee Wolves, 11-10, in a crucial district game.

The Jays improve to 3-1 and 1-0 in district play while Shawnee drops their first game of the season (5-1, 4-1). If somehow, Guthrie and Shawnee finish with an identical district record at the end of the season it would be the Jays with the tie breaker.

Both district teams reunite Thursday afternoon, at 5:00, in Shawnee.

Trailing 10-6 with one out in the seventh inning, Guthrie head coach Jon Chappell went to his bench and called for Clint Simek to pinch hit, and he delivered with a solo blast home run over the left field wall to pull the Jays within three.

Scott Pickle, Donovan Jordan and Luke Davis followed Simek’s shot by showing patience with the Wolves pitching loading the bases with a hit by pitch and two walks. Jacob Chappell later scored Pickle and Jordan with a 2-RBI single to right-center to make it a 10-9 game.

With runners on first and second and one out, Bryan Dutton appeared he may have hit into a double play with a bouncer back to the pitcher, but the throw from the pitcher brought the fielder off of second base and the Jays had the bases loaded, including the winning run at second.

Hayden Seifert then hit into a fielder’s choice after Shawnee got the force out at the plate, but an errant throw from the catcher, attempting a double play, scored Chappell and send the game into extra innings.

After leaving two runners on in the eighth inning, Guthrie got a Dutton lead off single to begin the ninth inning and later stole second, took third base on a wild pitch and finally scored on another wild pitch to win the game.

It appeared that Guthrie would not have need the extra two innings after jumping out on the Wolves with 5-runs in the first inning highlighted by a Scott Pickle 3-RBI double. John Clark added a RBI single in the opening frame.

However, Shawnee followed that performance with eight runs of their own in the second inning. All 8-runs were scored with two outs on right-hander Reed Roberts.

The Wolves got two more runs in the third inning to go up 10-5.

Roberts pitched just 2 1/3 innings, but was credited with just two earned runs.

Cody Reihs came to the mound and pitched 3 1/3 of shut-out baseball. Simek did the same in an inning of work and Chappell finished the game with two innings of work to collect the win. The last trio of pitchers combined for no runs, collected six strike outs and held the Wolves to three hits.

Landry Chappell belted his second home run of the season in the third inning and later was intentionally walked twice.

Dutton and Seifert each collected two hits.

Shawnee at Guthrie Bluejays Box Score