As the first flicker of a rally ignited beneath Central Catholic's baseball team Thursday night, senior shortstop Chas Bobillo played the rest of the seventh inning out in his head.
If the three Knights in front of him reached base, Bobillo would stand at the plate with the bases loaded and two out in a tie game against city rival Lafayette Jeff.
"When I was in the on-deck circle, I was thinking there was no way I wasn't going to get the hit," Bobillo said. "I was just really confident up there."
Everything happened just as Bobillo imagined. His single to left field drove in Taylor Glaze with the winning run in Class A No. 3 Central Catholic's 3-2 victory over Lafayette Jeff at Leming Field.
Glaze (4-2), who struck out a career-high 15, won a pitching duel against Jeff's Tyler Robbins, who had scored the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh.
"I love these close games," said Glaze, who outdueled McCutcheon's Shane Bryant in a 3-2 victory a week earlier. "It just brings such a better atmosphere to the game. It gets your adrenaline rushing and you're focused, you're zoned in, and it makes it that much more fun."
Robbins (2-2), who had not pitched since April 24 due to a back injury, allowed a run on four hits over the first six innings. The junior right-hander retired the first two Knights (15-3) in the seventh and had a 3-2 count on Cole Hruskovich before a walk started the CC rally.
For the sixth time, the Bronchos (11-9) lost a game that was decided in the seventh inning.
"We've got to bear down in the seventh inning and finish a game," Robbins said. "It hurts to lose to CC, but losing it in the seventh inning is worse."
After Hruskovich's walk, Glaze singled to right center. Hruskovich scored the tying run from second on Scott Windler's single to left, and Reed Drysdale drew a walk to load the bases.
Bobillo lined Robbins' first pitch foul down the left field line, then smacked the next one between third base and shortstop.
"I was excited," Bobillo said. "There was no doubt in my mind I was going to get the hit."Before the rally, it appeared both the victory and the winning run belonged to Robbins. Leading off the top of the seventh in a 1-1 game, he swung at strike three in the dirt but reached when the ball rolled to the backstop.
After Sean McDonald sacrificed Robbins to second, CC intentionally walked Brandon Adams. As Robbins attempted to steal third, DJ Frederick grounded to second. The throw went to first, and Robbins never stopped running through third and beat the throw home to make it 2-1 Bronchos.
Every Jeff starter except Adams struck out at least once. and the Bronchos left nine runners on, including six in scoring position.
"The way we play baseball, moving runners around and doing things like that, you've got to cut the strikeouts down to seven or lower and put the ball in play," Jeff coach Scott McTagertt said.
"We put the ball in play a couple of times, and they made an error on it. Put the ball in play -- that's all it takes in high school baseball, and we just didn't get it done."
Glaze struck out the side in the third and fourth and fanned two batters in four other innings. The senior left-hander threw 141 pitches in the complete-game victory.
"I was asking my guys, get me runs, and they got me just enough," Glaze said.
