Varsity Baseball Playoffs: Chancellor Chargers vs. Louisa Lions
By: Greg Wolfe
Coming off an extra inning win against their rivals just a couple nights before, the Chancellor Chargers were looking for more as they hit the road to play the top seeded Louisa Lions. The game went into extra innings again, and a clutch double by Jon Olsberg gave the Chargers the lead they needed to complete the upset.
Tyler Fisher started the game for the Chargers, and turned in an incredibly efficient outing. The Lions were retired quickly and quietly, while not recording their first hit until the third inning. Fisher only struck out one batter, leaving the rest to his defense which for the most part had his back.
The Chargers would grab the lead early on in the top of the second inning. Will Temple started off his huge day with a walk, and Olsberg would sacrifice bunt him over to second, After CJ Craft was hit by a pitch, the Chargers were in business. Will Libby came up clutch with a two out hit that scored Temple and the Chargers were on the board.
Business went by as usual as Fisher continued to cruise through the first three innings. In the bottom of the fourth inning, The Lions led off with a double, and would cash in after a badly timed error in the outfield helped the runners move along and eventually tie up the game. Olsberg would later clean up the inning and prevent more runners from crossing the plate, catching his first runner attempting to steal for the day to keep the game tied.
The game would remain in a dead-locked tie, as both teams jockeyed for a try at gaining the lead. In the 6th inning, Fisher was pulled and replaced by Bryce Sheetz. After some control issues, the Chargers decided to put back in Fisher to see if he could deal through a high-pressure situation. Fisher would have no problem finishing off the inning and keeping two Lions stranded on base after retiring the first two batters he saw.
In the top of the 7th, the Chargers ramped up the offense. Temple collected his second hit of the day, a resounding triple to right-center field to put himself in scoring position. Next up was Olsberg, who knocked a sac-fly to bring home Temple and gave the Chargers the late game lead and a massive boost of energy.
In the bottom of the 7th, the Chargers faced another high pressure situation. After Fisher hit the first batter of the inning, the Chargers replaced him with Craft. Craft showed some control issues, as two wild pitches sent the Lions' runner to third base. Craft recorded back-to-back strikeouts however and the Chargers could taste victory.
It was another untimely error, however, that allowed the Lions to score their second run of the game and tie it back up. Olsberg picked off a Lions' runner trying to steal on a blocked ball in the dirt, and the Chargers were headed to extras for the second consecutive game.
Craft dealed in his two innings of relief work, striking out three and not allowing a single hit. The Chargers were retired in order in the 8th, and Craft would work around two walks in the bottom of the inning to keep the game alive.
In the top of the 9th, it was Temple who came up clutch again. He slammed a double into left field this time, putting himself in perfect position for Olsberg who put another double into the same gap in the outfield, electrifying the Charger dugout and putting them back in the lead.
Olsberg was given the ball to close out the game and record the save in the bottom of the ninth, and he responded with relative ease. Working around a sharp lead-off single, he forced the next batter to ground into an interesting double play. It was ruled the runner on first interfered the turning of the double play, and the air was sucked out of Louisa's attempt to tie the game back up.
The final batter of the game grounded out to Matt Morgan at short stop, and the Chargers clinched a spot in the conference championship game and a spot in regional play next week. The team isn't done yet, and has re-found the team chemistry they had earlier in the year. It'll be a fun next couple of weeks for the ball club.
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