Centennial junior pitcher Casey Stachera relaxed and kept calm in the Eagles’ back gym.
Stachera got the start for the Eagles against No. 3 River Hill on Friday, but the game was delayed with two outs in the first inning for roughly 90 minutes because of thunderstorms.
After only throwing 17 pitches prior to the delay, Centennial coach Steve Fredrick went to Stachera and asked if he wanted to retake the mound when the teams returned to the field. Stachera didn’t hesitate.
Fredrick consistently checked in with him over the prolonged wait and Stachera reassured him each time that he was good to go. The junior’s performance matched his enthusiasm. He delivered five shutout innings, allowing just one hit and striking out four. Senior Zach Kelly shut the door with four strikeouts in the final two innings and sealed the 2-0 win.
“It was tough because I looked at the forecast before the game and I didn’t know it was coming,” Stachera said. “I just went in the gym, and it was about trying to keep it calm, not do too much. Just really come back and just stay hungry on the mound. I was ready. I honestly didn’t think too much of it. I felt like it was a restart.”
Stachera faced his most challenging situation in the second. He walked three hitters in that frame, but remained confident and got Jonathan Bloom to ground out to shortstop to end the threat.
Despite walking five, Stachera effectively mixed his fastball and slider and allowed just three total baserunners in his final three innings of work.
“He’s a horse,” Fredrick said of Stachera. “He catches for us as well. It’s the first time I’ve dealt with catcher/pitcher, I know it’s tough on the arm. We had all eyes on this game with it being senior night and him being one of our top arms. It just goes to show that he’s one of the top arms out here.
“I think it kind of surprised a lot of people a little bit, because this is the first year he’s pitched for Centennial. He’s caught the last couple of years. We’re thrilled to have him making it happen for us at both spots.”
The extended delay seemed to impact both offenses, but the Eagles coupled base runningtimely hitting to score their runs. In the second, Brady Harris worked a one-out walk and Calvin Proescher came as on a pinch runner. He came around to score on a pair of wild pitches.
Centennial (11-4, 5-3 Sierra Division) followed a similar script to score its second run in the third. Aariz Khan ripped a lead-off single to left field and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Carter Bade, who had a team-high two hits, brought Khan in with another single.
As the daylight dwindled, the intensity of the game and the noise from both dugouts increased. River Hill’s Collin Reis, who came on in relief, let out an emphatic scream after getting out of a bases-loaded situation in the fifth. The Hawks’ bats, though, were unable to build on that momentum as Kelly struck out the side in the sixth.
River Hill (15-4, 5-1 Sierra) brought the top of its lineup — Ryan Walsh, Bloom and Anderson Dang — to the plate in the seventh. Kelly kept an attacking mentality and didn’t flinch against those three challenging hitters.
The veteran, on senior night, pumped a fastball past Dang for the final out to cement the doubly sweet victory. Centennial honored its five seniors in the best way possible, with a win and also, avenged a gut-wrenching one-run walk-off loss to the Hawks nine days ago.
In their joyous postgame celebratory huddle, Bade interjected with an energetic message. He passionately yelled, ‘Let’s keep the momentum’ as the Eagles have one regular-season game remaining on Monday. After that, the Eagles are readily aware of how many more victories they need to achieve their ultimate goal: a state title.
“Just win this next one and keep building off of that,” Kelly said. “Just keep rolling. Seven-game win streak, that’s all we need.”
RH- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
C- 0 1 1 0 0 0 X
WP: Casey Stachera; LP: Hansen Zhang.
C: 2B: Aiden Gauthier.
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