Walkoff homer sinks Tigers

NEOLA — Sophomore catcher Tristin Gunderson hit his first home run of the season to lift Tri-Center to a walk-off 4-3 victory over Lenox Saturday in the Class 1A District 15 championship game.

The seventh-inning solo blast capped a wild final two innings as Lenox twice rallied to tie the game at 2-2 and 3-3 after the Trojans had led since the first inning behind the no-hit pitching of Lincoln Thomas.

The loss ended Lenox’s season at 20-8, appearing in a district title game for the third straight season. Tri-Center (19-8) advanced to Tuesday’s substate final against Bedford (19-10) at Atlantic. The Bulldogs defeated Southwest Valley Saturday, 2-0.

Lenox sophomore Laramie Stoaks, who had the only Tiger hit of the game in the top of the seventh, went the distance on the mound. Gunderson’s blast came on his 102nd pitch after he had collected eight strikeouts and one walk with five hits allowed.

“Unfortunately, that hanging breaking ball was a couple of inches off where it needed to be and the ball went over the fence,” said Lenox coach Trevor Luther. “That was their nine-hole batter, which is pretty miraculous for them. If you’re on their end, that’s pretty cool. Laramie was pretty dialed in after that first inning. He pitched a good game. That’s baseball.”

Tri-Center took an early 2-0 lead on hits by leadoff batter Cael Witt and Carter Kunze, with the second run crossing on an infield error.

From there, both offenses were contained by Thomas and Stoaks, with three Lenox baserunners erased on two pickoffs and Gunderson throwing out a stolen base attempt at second. The Trojans went down in order against Stoaks in the second, third and fourth innings.

“I wasn’t necessarily happy with a couple of the pickoff calls, but nevertheless that’s on us to clean that up,” Luther said.

Even without a hit, the Tigers managed to tie it at 2-2 in the top of the sixth. Wylie Brokaw drew a walk, and a Tri-Center error on Rydder Hogan’s grounder put the tying runs on base.

After Thomas recorded a strikeout, Brokaw scored on an errant pickoff throw and a passed ball sent Hogan to third base. Thomas got the second out on a strikeout, but Hogan scampered home on a wild pitch to tie it at 2-2.

Tri-Center responded in the bottom of the sixth, as Cameron Hoden’s sacrifice bunt scored AJ Harder for a 3-2 lead going into the seventh.

The Tigers were down to their final strike against Tri-Center reliever Isaac Wohlhuter in the seventh after Stoaks had singled before two strikeouts. As Wohlhuter picked up Brody Petersen’s roller in front of the mound, the throw pulled first baseman Jayden Johnson off the bag.

As Johnson tried to tag Petersen near the bag, the ball squirted out of his glove and rolled toward the fence. Stoaks bolted home to make it 3-3. The inning ended on a third strikeout.

That set the stage for Gunderson’s homer, igniting a celebration on the Trojans’ field as they seek a second state tournament berth in the past four years and seventh in program history in Tuesday’s game.

“These guys have a chance to go far, for sure,” Luther said. “I’m very proud of our guys and the way they handled themselves through the adversity of this game. We knew it would take a clean baseball game defensively to take these guys, and we did not have that. Good teams take advantage of your mistakes. We took advantage of some of theirs, so it went both ways. Their pitcher was locating his off-speed stuff really well and setting up his pitches. We just didn’t have that big hit tonight.”

Lenox reached the district finals for the third straight year. Catcher/pitcher Carter Reed was the lone senior on a team that won 20 games for the third time in the past four years (20-8 this year, 20-8 in 2023, 15-13 in 2022 and 21-12 in 2021).

“We lost six everyday senior starters from last year and coming in we had a lot of questions,” Luther said. “We started three eighth-graders with just one senior on the team. I cannot speak volumes enough about Carter Reed. That kid will absolutely be successful in whatever he does. He exemplifies exactly what Lenox baseball is all about. He’s a gritty, tough player. He comes to the ballpark every day and does his job, doing whatever it takes to give his team an opportunity to win. He’s meant so much to us over the last four years.”