ALLIANCE — Max Bessey dropped down the perfect bunt, and Nolan Hazzard secured a victory for Midview.
With the championship on the line, Nancy’s Diner performed the suicide squeeze flawlessly to defeat Sheffield 9-8 in the Hot Stove Class G (ages 11-12) final at Butler Rodman Park on Sunday.
“This Venom team is a great team,” Midview coach Dan Rozanski remarked. “We knew the game would be back-and-forth. They have a few of good pitchers who we knew we’d have to compete with. It was all about winning innings. When you play games like these, you simply try to keep the men focused and believe that they can accomplish it.
“We’ve had incredible baserunning speed all year. I knew if we got someone on there, we could get something done.”
To add to the drama, Hazzard, one of the team’s fastest players, was nursing a hurt right leg from taking a line drive off the top of his thigh earlier in the game while on the mound.
This did not prevent him from stealing third during Bessey’s at-bat to put himself in position. The coaches opted to put it all on the line. Bessey bunted cleanly down the third base line, and Hazzard raced by the defense to score.
“I got up to the plate and saw my dad give the bunt sign,” Bessey told me. “I just whacked the ball and prayed it landed fair. I was glancing behind me the entire time to see if he arrived in time. “He arrived, we scored, and we won.”
Both beginning pitchers pitched gems, and Hazzard provided Midview five solid innings. He was practically unbeatable through the first four innings, but the Venom tagged him for five runs in the fifth to grab a 6-3 lead.
Hazzard ended with eight strikeouts while giving up six earned runs on six hits and one walk. That, paired with scoring the winning run, gave him MVP recognition.
“I just really wanted this,” Hazzard explained. “We lost the state championship two years ago, so I really wanted to win it this year. I was just taking my time and concentrating on my catcher while I was on the mound.”
Sheffield’s Jeffrey Bier III pitched a dominant game. In fact, if the Venom had won, he would have most likely been voted MVP after striking out 11 and allowing six runs, four earned, on four hits and one walk. Bier finished 2-for-4 with a run and a steal.
Bier struck out seven straight batters at one point and had ten strikeouts in five innings despite only facing 19 opponents.
“Pitching was our big thing this whole year,” Sheffield coach Brian DeVito said. “It didn’t matter who was up there; we had three aces. “They bring it every game.”
Sheffield extended their lead to 7-3 with a run in the sixth inning, but Midview responded with four runs to tie the game. Easton Kirby led off with a single, a dropped third strike resulted in another baserunner, and a walk ended Bier’s day.
All three runners scored, two on wild pitches and the other on Ashton Hazzard’s RBI double. Ashton Hazzard scored on a fielder’s choice to tie the game at seven.
Vinny Ott put the Venom back up with a one-out solo home run to left field, but Midview responded with a single and a walk. The tying run scored on a wild pitch, which set up Bessey’s bunt.
“The last three seasons we got out in the first round, so even just making it down here is a huge step for us,” DeVito told ESPN. “We got Nancy’s Diner to the bottom of the seventh. There isn’t much more you can ask for in a game between two dominant teams. “We just ended up on the wrong side.”
