Simeon Wasil
MITCHELL — Hauser’s best baseball season in years ended in tears.
The Class A No. 5 Jets had command of Saturday’s Mitchell Regional game until Class A No. 3 Knightstown exploded for three runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game and then sent the winning run across the plate in the eighth to win 7-6 in extra innings in a battle of top-five teams in Class A.
It’s heartbreak for Hauser, which had aspirations of making for a run at the state title. Jets coach Mike Flack appreciated how much his seniors meant this year and the past four years.
“They’ve been with me all four years,” Flack said. “They were the guys in the dugout I bonded with the most, and I really can’t say enough about those guys.”
The momentum of the game changed when it got to the sixth and seventh innings when Jets starting pitcher Simeon Wasil hit 98 pitches. So Flack turned to RJ Foster and Kam Blair to finish out the game.
“(Wasil) was getting up there (in the pitch count). He was laboring a little bit,” Flack said. “He got up there in pitches and was getting tired, so we decided to make the switch. It was fine, but (Knightstown is) just a good hitting team.”
Another stat that didn’t favor Hauser (19-4) was leaving runners stranded. The Jets left 15 runners on base, including 10 in scoring position.
“It’s usually hard to get our small ball game going on turf,” Flack said. “The ball speeds up, so we can’t get a lot of bunts down and work what we really like to do. I can’t fault the guys for battling. They’ve battled all the way through.”
Hauser took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a long double by Wasil and retired the Panthers in the first and second. The Jets looked to be out of the third inning when a routine play for a foul ball from the bat of Jackson Daves was heading to right field, but the catch was missed.
Daves made the most of his extra opportunity. With runners at first and second, he blasted a three-run home run over the left field fence to give the Jets a gut punch and a 3-1 deficit.
Hauser didn’t let the home run bother it. In the top of the fourth, Foster led off with a one-out walk. After he stole second, Stryker Gill smacked a double to score Foster. Holden Pittman then delivered a two-out single to score Gill to tie the game at 3-3. Blair then smacked a double to right field for the go-ahead run and 4-3 lead.
The Jets sent eight batters to the plate in the top of the sixth inning and drew four walks and a hit by pitch to plate two more runs to extend the lead to 6-4.
In the bottom of the seventh, Knightstown extended the game when three straight singles loaded the bases. An error by Hauser helped the Panthers plate two runs to cut the lead to 6-5. A shallow single from Travis Louks tied the game at 6-6. With the bases loaded, Blair came on in relief and pitched two straight strikeouts to end the inning and send it to extras.
The Panthers then prevailed in the extra frame.
Gill and Wasil each went 2 for 5 with a double for the Jets. Blair was 1 for 3 with a double.
