JUDA - Just as a tiny stone dropped Goliath, Juda small-balled the Warriors of Black Hawk to death down the stretch Friday night in a 5-2 season-opening upset.
The Panthers countered Black Hawk's pair of mammoth home runs with five gritty, unearned runs over the fifth and sixth innings to knock off Alex Abraham and the rest of the stalwart ballclub from South Wayne.
Abraham, Black Hawk's ace and No. 2 hitter, hit a solo shot in the first inning off knuckleball specialist Jake Ramos as he picked on a fastball and hit a rainbow out to right center two pitches after leadoff man Tommy Butts was picked off first base.
"Hopefully we got the chance to get this out of our system; so many mental mistakes," Abraham said. "The pitcher steps off with his right foot, you gotta get back to the bag."
But then the onus of blame shifted as a pair of errant throws by Abraham fueled Juda's rally.
The Panthers' fifth opened with a flare single to right off the bat of sophomore Aaron Duecker that just stretched past Butts, but the second baseman's dive came up just short. Then Panthers senior Kurtis Mansfield laid down a speedy bunt that Abraham air-mailed into centerfield as he tried to cut down the lead runner. Three batters later, back at the top of the lineup, Steven West dribbled an infield single that filled the bases before Tyler Lincoln hit a routine fly ball to right that Troy Stauffer had glance off the heel of his mitt, scoring two runs.
The tie was broken in the next frame after stocky first baseman Greg Lynch flashed some senior leadership in legging out a bang-bang play a slow chopper down the line to Steve Herbst.
"How about that? I felt the ground shake a little bit on that one," Juda coach Brent Bockhop said.
After Tyler Pierce hit a rocket to reach on a Butts error, Duecker laid down the bunt that broke the Warriors' back. Abraham moved quickly to his right, fielded cleanly and tried to cut down Lynch at third, only to send the pill sailing toward the playground and allowing two runs to score.
"I was just trying to advance the runners and miracles can happen when you put the ball in play," Duecker said.
"We didn't give up one earned run and it was mostly because of me throwing to bases," Abraham said. "Both of them just slipped out of my hand. It's just one of those things, but we'll get it worked out."
Mansfield successful got a suicide squeeze down that Abraham ill-tossed to first base to plate Duecker.
Before the misfires, Abraham was a one-man wrecking crew. Mixing a variety of fastballs with nasty breaking stuff, the senior captain racked up 11 total strikeouts, including a stretch of six in a row spanning the second out of the first through the first of the third as Juda senior Kurtis Mansfield twisted out of the way of a backdoor curve that burnt the inside black.
Junior first baseman Shane Jackson socked a 1-2 pitch to about the same spot as Abraham's, just at a much lower trajectory for Black Hawk's second homer in the fourth inning.
After three-and-a-half excruciating innings, Bockhop made an early-season calibration of his team's scope.
While Juda went down in order in the fourth inning, they found something out as they backed up in the batter's box to get a good look at Abraham's knee-buckling, spine-twisting off-speed stuff.
"He was owning the inside and outside of the plate," Bockhop said. "When his curveball was breaking across the inside, our guys were bailing out half the time. They backed out of their stance in the box a little bit and all those balls started going back up the middle."
Juda junior Beau Benner relieved Ramos after four-and-a-third and settled in nicely after yielding a double to Joey Hartwig that the senior shortstopped smashed into the right-center gap.
But Benner got his revenge as his fourth and final strikeout came against Hartwig as he gassed him upstairs with a fastball to end the game.
"I don't really have all the different pitches that Jake does," Benner said. "I just try to throw it hard and see what happens."
It was second baseman and Benner's fellow hoops star Mansfield who kept things tied in the top of the sixth when he laid out to his left to smother a hot shot off Herbst's bat, sending Mansfield's sunglasses flying. He popped to his feet and fished for the ball twice unsuccessfully before finally corralling it and throwing out Herbst.
"He's just a born leader and he's going to do anything possible," Bockhop said. "He's got ice water in his veins. He'll always stick with it, that's his nature."
The victory was Juda's first in a conference opener in five years. Even the key characters might not have believed the story if told it beforehand.
"I wouldn't have believed you," Benner said. "But this shows that we can do it if we get a total team effort."
"You just gotta believe, that's all you gotta do," Duecker added.
The Panthers countered Black Hawk's pair of mammoth home runs with five gritty, unearned runs over the fifth and sixth innings to knock off Alex Abraham and the rest of the stalwart ballclub from South Wayne.
Abraham, Black Hawk's ace and No. 2 hitter, hit a solo shot in the first inning off knuckleball specialist Jake Ramos as he picked on a fastball and hit a rainbow out to right center two pitches after leadoff man Tommy Butts was picked off first base.
"Hopefully we got the chance to get this out of our system; so many mental mistakes," Abraham said. "The pitcher steps off with his right foot, you gotta get back to the bag."
But then the onus of blame shifted as a pair of errant throws by Abraham fueled Juda's rally.
The Panthers' fifth opened with a flare single to right off the bat of sophomore Aaron Duecker that just stretched past Butts, but the second baseman's dive came up just short. Then Panthers senior Kurtis Mansfield laid down a speedy bunt that Abraham air-mailed into centerfield as he tried to cut down the lead runner. Three batters later, back at the top of the lineup, Steven West dribbled an infield single that filled the bases before Tyler Lincoln hit a routine fly ball to right that Troy Stauffer had glance off the heel of his mitt, scoring two runs.
The tie was broken in the next frame after stocky first baseman Greg Lynch flashed some senior leadership in legging out a bang-bang play a slow chopper down the line to Steve Herbst.
"How about that? I felt the ground shake a little bit on that one," Juda coach Brent Bockhop said.
After Tyler Pierce hit a rocket to reach on a Butts error, Duecker laid down the bunt that broke the Warriors' back. Abraham moved quickly to his right, fielded cleanly and tried to cut down Lynch at third, only to send the pill sailing toward the playground and allowing two runs to score.
"I was just trying to advance the runners and miracles can happen when you put the ball in play," Duecker said.
"We didn't give up one earned run and it was mostly because of me throwing to bases," Abraham said. "Both of them just slipped out of my hand. It's just one of those things, but we'll get it worked out."
Mansfield successful got a suicide squeeze down that Abraham ill-tossed to first base to plate Duecker.
Before the misfires, Abraham was a one-man wrecking crew. Mixing a variety of fastballs with nasty breaking stuff, the senior captain racked up 11 total strikeouts, including a stretch of six in a row spanning the second out of the first through the first of the third as Juda senior Kurtis Mansfield twisted out of the way of a backdoor curve that burnt the inside black.
Junior first baseman Shane Jackson socked a 1-2 pitch to about the same spot as Abraham's, just at a much lower trajectory for Black Hawk's second homer in the fourth inning.
After three-and-a-half excruciating innings, Bockhop made an early-season calibration of his team's scope.
While Juda went down in order in the fourth inning, they found something out as they backed up in the batter's box to get a good look at Abraham's knee-buckling, spine-twisting off-speed stuff.
"He was owning the inside and outside of the plate," Bockhop said. "When his curveball was breaking across the inside, our guys were bailing out half the time. They backed out of their stance in the box a little bit and all those balls started going back up the middle."
Juda junior Beau Benner relieved Ramos after four-and-a-third and settled in nicely after yielding a double to Joey Hartwig that the senior shortstopped smashed into the right-center gap.
But Benner got his revenge as his fourth and final strikeout came against Hartwig as he gassed him upstairs with a fastball to end the game.
"I don't really have all the different pitches that Jake does," Benner said. "I just try to throw it hard and see what happens."
It was second baseman and Benner's fellow hoops star Mansfield who kept things tied in the top of the sixth when he laid out to his left to smother a hot shot off Herbst's bat, sending Mansfield's sunglasses flying. He popped to his feet and fished for the ball twice unsuccessfully before finally corralling it and throwing out Herbst.
"He's just a born leader and he's going to do anything possible," Bockhop said. "He's got ice water in his veins. He'll always stick with it, that's his nature."
The victory was Juda's first in a conference opener in five years. Even the key characters might not have believed the story if told it beforehand.
"I wouldn't have believed you," Benner said. "But this shows that we can do it if we get a total team effort."
"You just gotta believe, that's all you gotta do," Duecker added.
