Wilde Lake pitcher Mike Palasits kept telling himself, 'one more inning.'
Locked in a scoreless game against a River Hill team that had swept the Wildecats during the regular season, including a 10-0 win this past Monday, the senior knew that it was up to him to hold things down long enough for the offense to pick him up.
"I knew we could hit the ball, so I was just waiting for it to happen because we have some great hitters on this team," Palasits said. "I just kept thinking 'keep putting those zeros up there … the runs are about to come.' I got out of a couple close innings, including the sixth, and that was really big."
Sure enough, in the bottom of the sixth against River Hill (6-12) starter Rohan Tilva, the Wilde Lake (8-10) bats indeed delivered.
Wyatt Oler led off with a single and Sergio Irizarry-Cruz drove him home with a line-drive single two batters later to kick off the scoring in what ended up being a three-run inning, providing all the offense Wilde Lake needed to earn a 3-0 victory. The win marks the first playoff win since 2005 for the Wildecats.
"The way (Mike) was pitching, I was thinking if we could just get one run on the board we'd be good," Wilde Lake coach Kareem Penn said. "We've approached the entire season, knowing that our bats are going to keep us in games and somehow wake up for one inning or two. And, sure enough, when we needed them today, they came through."
Wilde Lake Senior Cuinn Mullins, who walked and scored a run on an RBI hit from James Thomas during the decisive inning, said finally getting in the win column during the postseason was special. The fact that it came against a Hawks' team that had knocked them around just a few days earlier, made it even sweeter.
"It felt great, and when you consider they just destroyed us a few days ago, it was like redemption today," Mullins said. "We all really wanted this one."
River Hill had chances to get on the board early on, but never managed to come up with the big hit in the big spots.
The Hawks got a leadoff double from Kieran Garner in the second inning, however, Palasits got a ground ball back to him and then a pair of strikeouts to get out of the inning. Then in the sixth, River Hill's Luke Parker and Garner drew back-to-back walks to put runners on first and second with one out. But a fielder's choice and fly out again kept the game scoreless.
Tilva did his best to keep his team in the game, finishing with six strikeouts and allowing just two hits through the first five innings. But, considering how clean Wilde Lake was playing on the other side, he was forced to be perfect.
"In the end, these tight games come down to clean defense, quality pitching and clutch hits. That's it," River Hill coach Wes McCoy said. "We just didn't figure out how to make that happen today and, to Wilde Lake's credit, they did."
Oler, who had led off the game with a single, started the rally in the sixth with an infield hit to deep short. Matthew Aubin then moved him over on a ground out and that set Irizarry-Cruz up to drive in what ended up being the game-winning run.
"I had seen the ball pretty well off him, I had just missed it by a couple inches the first couple times. I just changed my approach a little bit because I was trying to do too much at the beginning," Irizarry-Cruz said. "At the end, I was just trying to hit a line drive and it worked."
Mullins walked following the hit by Irizarry-Cruz, and then Jared Mouton and Thomas delivered back-to-back RBI singles to make it 3-0.
Finally pitching with a lead, Palasits made the most of it. In the top of the seventh he set River Hill down in order, including a game-ending strikeout.
"That last inning I just thought I had to put all of my strength into these last few pitches and keep it low," said Palasits, who finished the game scattering just three hits around five walks. "I walked a few more batters than I expected today, so I really wanted to make sure I finished strong there."
Wilde Lake now advances to face defending state-champion Reservoir on Monday at 4 p.m.
Wilde Lake 3, River Hill 0
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