Centennial baseball places a consistent focus in practice on “the little things”: bunting, base running and situational awareness.
Tuesday afternoon, those small things paid major dividends in a 6-5 walk-off win over No. 15 River Hill.
In the bottom of the seventh, down a run, the Eagles’ Aariz Khan stepped to the plate with runners on first and second and no outs. Coach Denis Ahearn gave Khan the bunt sign and he proceeded to lay one down the first base line. The throw went off the first baseman’s glove and rolled wide, bringing in the tying run. An ensuing throw to third sailed high and out of play, letting the winning run dash home.
Khan tossed his helmet at second base and celebrated with teammates who sprinted out to meet him.
“Coach gave me the sign before I got to the plate,” Khan said. “I was confident, just breathed and laid it down. We practice all the time, all the little things like coach said. I thought we were only going to score a run but we scored two, so I threw the helmet off and said, ‘Let’s go.’ Walked it off.”
Khan wasn’t the only Eagle to step up in a critical moment. Sophomore Aiden Lee came on in relief of Zach Harris to start the sixth. In his first varsity appearance, Lee felt a mix of nerves and excitement. He allowed the tying run but minimized further damage striking out Duke commit Henry Zatkowski to close the sixth.
Lee once again faced a jam in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out. However, he allowed just one run and struck out Ethan McCoy to end the inning, keeping the Eagles (4-1) within striking distance entering the bottom of the seventh.
“Just remembering that it’s nothing different than any other time I’ve been pitching like a bullpen or anything,” Lee said. “I just have to take a deep breath and focus on throwing strikes. This was definitely the highest-pressure situation I’ve pitched in. I liked it. I liked getting out there and pitching in a high-pressure situation.”
The Eagles’ bats came out hot to start. Cade Ahearn and Carter Bade delivered RBI singles in the first inning. Ahearn ripped his second RBI single in the next inning and Khan later came home on a double steal.
Facing an early four-run hole, River Hill (5-2) battled back in the third, aided by Centennial mistakes. The Hawks scored three runs in the frame on just one hit to get right back in it. Garrett Skolkin, Sam Antevil and Ryan Walsh kept the Eagles off the board in the middle innings, as River Hill remained within one after five.
“We didn’t execute down the stretch,” River Hill coach Craig Estrin said. “It should have never come to that. We were out of it the first two innings and our pitching kind of us kept us in the game. We battled, so that’s a good sign. We threw guys today that we haven’t pitched often and they did really well. Thomas [Jayne] just got off to a bad start, that happens. From a positive standpoint, these are guys that really have never pitched on varsity, so that’s encouraging.”
Their efforts allowed River Hill to tie it in the sixth and take the lead in the seventh on Jayne’s sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh before the Eagles’ rally.
“You hope that these are character building games,” Coach Ahearn said. “The type of things that you realize all the little things it takes to win a ballgame. Then you put it all together and show some grit, next thing you know, you’ve got a team mentality that, ‘It doesn’t matter what happens, we can find a way to win.’ That’s what I’m trying to teach these kids is, you’re going to have to learn to win in a bunch of different ways.
“I would have loved it if we could’ve put a bunch of runs up early and kept going the way that we were doing. Going into the seventh down one in this situation and figuring out how to win, that’s a big deal.”
River Hill — 003 001 1 — 5 6 2
Centennial — 220 000 2 — 6 8 1
WP: Aiden Lee. LP: Ryan Walsh
2B: RH- Jonathan Bloom; C- Charlie Wentker.