BROOKVILLE — Some creative scheduling combined with doing what it was asked to do got the Brookville Raiders a District 9 Class 3A playoff berth.
With the Raiders scheduled to host North Clarion Monday at McKinley Field and a trip to Cranberry Tuesday, a gloomy weather forecast for Tuesday led to a couple phone calls and a doubleheader for the Raiders that finished under the lights.
Needing to basically finish the schedule with four wins, the Raiders wound up sweeping two doubleheaders, first last Friday at Keystone and then Monday night with a 13-2 five-inning win over the Wolves before holding off the Berries 7-6 in the night cap.
The schedule concluded with a good-enough record of 7-13. They’ll very likely be the No. 4 seed in a bracket with St. Marys, Karns City and A-C Valley/Union.
“We had to win one out of this pod, or we had to sweep these guys and we chose the latter, which was a little bit harder route,” Raiders head coach Chad Weaver said. “Tonight was big and if the weather played out Tuesday like it does, we don’t have a shot, so I have to thank (athletic director) Dave Osborne for making that call and for Cranberry to be willing to do that because they were in a similar situation. We were really appreciative for them coming down and playing and settling it on the field.”
The second win was the nail-biter of course. The Berries, the home team, had runners on first and two outs with one run already scored in the bottom of the seventh when Blake Marchinke lofted a low liner to center fielder Trent Colgan, but Colgan lost the ball in the lights and two runs scored on the play.
Ironically, Cole Findlay hit the ball into right-center where Colgan ran that one down for his third putout of the game.
“He’s been the ultimate teammate … everyone in this dugout was sick thinking that may be what our last memory as a team with this group would be and not only did he redeem himself 30 seconds later, but gave this group of seniors one more baseball game and a handful of practices,” Weaver summed up.
The Raiders trailed the Berries 4-3 going into the top of the fourth before scoring two runs to take the lead for good. Chase Nimmo singled in a run and then with two outs Owen Fleming reached on an infield error that brought home Parker Kalgren.
Luke Burton was hit by a pitch to lead off the fifth and scored on Landen Marrara’s single. Fleming singled with one out in the sixth, stole second and scored on Ladd Blake’s single to make it 7-4.
Kalgren pitched into the fifth inning and was relieved by Fleming with two runners on and no outs. Fleming walked his first batter, but managed to get out of the inning by striking out Hudson Galla and then Alex McIntyre before Kalgren, now at catcher, picked off Landon Burgdorfer straying too far off first to end the inning.
Kalgren got the win, giving up six hits and three walks while striking out four. Three of the four runs scored off him were earned. Fleming notched a three-inning save, allowing three hits and three walks while striking out two and giving up two runs.
Fleming had three hits and scored twice while Burton doubled.
In the first game against the Wolves, the Raiders scored six runs in the bottom of the third to go up 13-1. Marrara was the only multi-hit Raider, going 3-for-3 with two runs scored and two runs driven in with a double. He also went all five innings on the mound, striking out two and walking one while giving up six hits.