ACME ball: Napoleon clinches spot in districts with win over Tinora

For a moment though, the deja vu was kicking in for the Wildcats as up 4-1 going to the sixth, they gave up four runs and subsequently gave up the lead.

On Saturday in their opener, much the same happened as they led the Rams 4-0 before Tinora scored five unanswered to win the ball game and send the Wildcats to the losers bracket.

The result was a tough road to get to this point, playing three games in three days, but when they got their chance for revenge against the Rams, they didn’t led another lead slip through their fingers.

After giving up the lead, Napoleon immediately tied the game back up in the bottom of the sixth with a Trey Rubinstein single and after a scoreless seventh the game headed to extras.

Tinora got runners on second and third in the top of the eighth with one out, then after Napoleon chose to intentionally walk Teron Ward to load the bases, Tinora ACME coach Doug Plassman decided to roll the dice and call for a suicide squeeze.

Luke Harris bunted a ball foul on his first attempt but the second try dribbled its way down the third base line and though a charging pitcher in Rubinstein looked home, his only out was at first and Tinora had taken a lead.

But again, facing a late deficit was no problem for Napoleon.

On the other end for Tinora, Korbin Casteel was coming out for his incredible eighth inning of work. But after Napoleon was able to get runners on first and third with one out, Casteel was pulled in favor of Eli Plassman.

“We needed Korbin to give us those innings because coming in we only had two arms,” Plassman said. “I think he finished with 115 pitches and it really felt like he got better as the game went on.”

Plassman gave up a sac fly to Bryce Bostelman on the next hitter, but got out of the inning, stranding bases-loaded to keep the Rams alive.

Going to the ninth, Napoleon decided to replace Rubinstein, who took over for the starter Owen Espinoza, with Lucas Gerken.

Gerken started in Napoleon’s loss to Tinora on Saturday and ran into trouble in the fifth giving up three runs. For that reason and the fact that Napoleon ACME coach Matt Hardy and company felt that Espinoza’s offspeed stuff would throw the Rams off balance, Gerken didn’t get the ball to start this one.

But in the ninth inning, Gerken set his troubles aside and put down Tinora in order, the last two via strikeout.

In the bottom, Blaine Ford and Luke Hardy clubbed back-to-back singles to start the inning, then Espinoza walked to load the bases.

That set the stage for Cal Bickel, who in a 2-1 count hit a deep fly to center field, and earned a sacrifice fly to send Napoleon to districts.

“This is just a resilient team and when you go against a good team like Tinora is, you have to be,” Hardy said. “They (Tinora) were fundamentally sound and they made plays but credit to our guys for staying in it even after we gave up those four runs in the sixth.”

Despite the loss for the Rams, Plassman credited his resilient bunch who came back to beat Napoleon in the first game, clawed all the way back to within two against Archbold in the winners bracket final after being down 7-0, and then nearly pulled off another comeback against Napoleon.

“We’ve been doing this all summer, we’ve kind of been like the comeback kids,” Plassman said.” I couldn’t be prouder of the resiliency this team showed in a really tough sectional.”

Napoleon now moves onto districts where they will travel to play in Archbold next Thursday.

Tinora 100 004 010 — 6 9 2

Napoleon 120 011 011 — 7 11 3

Records: Napoleon 10-6.

Winning Pitcher: Lucas Gerken (1 inning, 0 hits, 0 runs, 2 strikeouts, 0 walks). Others: Trey Rubinstein, Owen Espinoza.

Losing Pitcher: Korbin Casteel (7.1 innings, 9 hits, 6 runs, 5 earned, 5 strikeouts, 3 walks). Others: Eli Plassman.

Leading Hitters: (Tinora) — Dalton Wolfrum double; Teron Ward double, single; Luke Harris 3 singles. (Napoleon) — Blaine Ford 2 doubles, single; Trey Rubinstein 2 RBIs, 2 runs; Cal Bickel 2 singles, 3 runs; Jacob Shadle 2 singles.