It happened again.
For the second time this season, the Blair baseball team won a Vets Field game by walk-off grand slam. Freshman Brady Brown cleared the fence Monday evening during the seventh inning, pushing the Bears by Class B No. 8 Seward, 6-4.
“I was hoping for a strike,” Brown said. “And I did what I needed to do.”
The Bluejay hurler did his part, too.
“Right down the pipe,” BHS' No. 2 hitter said.
The ball sailed and Canton Lippincott tagged up at third base, throwing his hands up when he saw it leave the field of play. The senior led the procession to home plate as the Bears notched their 10th win of the season. Two of those victories have come by walk-off grand slam after sophomore Shea Wendt delivered his own against Columbus on April 3.
“(Brown and Wendt) are solid players who know how to compete and want to win,” senior shortstop Nolan Osterhaus said. “That's all it takes to step up.”
Lippincott, Gherig Svendgard and he stepped up, too, loading the bases for Brown. After a leadoff flyout, No. 17 stepped into the batter's box.
“Mostly I'm thinking either I'm going to drop a bunt down to third base because the third baseman was playing back...,” Lippincott said. “... or I'm going to hit a blooper to right field because the right field gap is way open down the line.”
After his bunt attempt came up empty, the senior delivered on the swing that followed.
“It felt like it what I was looking for,” he said. “I didn't want to hit it hard. I knew if I hit it hard, it was most likely going to be caught.”
Lippincott's easy knock found the grass in shallow left-center field, putting the Bears in business down 4-2.
Next up, pinch-hitter Gherig Svendgard stepped in with hopes of his own hit. Instead, Seward gave the senior a free base.
“He threw a curveball and the curveball looked like it was going to hit me,” he said. “So I got out of the way and it still hit me.”
Svendgard said it was a bit disappointing not getting a pitch to hit, but that the contact didn't hurt either. Ultimately, he did his job in a tight spot, taking first base.
“That's exactly what I wanted,” he joked.
Svendgard later moved to second base when Osterhaus drew a six-pitch walk. The Bluejay pitcher started the go-ahead runner with three balls and eventually sent him to first with Brown up next. The freshman took the first pitch he saw from the hurler, who'd come in to close out the game at the beginning of the inning.
“I was pretty excited to see something new,” Brown said. “I saw the first ball go by, and I liked it a lot.”
He liked the one he gave a ride, too.
“Our pitchers (Dylan Swanson and Bo Nielsen) were dealing at the end, throwing strikes, and we had to back them up with some runs,” Brown said. “I did the job there.”
The win was the Bears' fourth in a row.
“We had kind of a slow start, but we're figuring it out and getting pretty hot,” Osterhaus said.
They were 10-11 going into Tuesday's game against Elkhorn North and are 10-12 after it.
Wolves best Bears 5-2
Morgan Rump and Conner O'Neil logged seventh-inning RBIs Tuesday at Elkhorn North, but the Bears fell 5-2.
The Wolves scored one run during the fourth inning and four during the fifth to best coach John Roan's team. They also outhit BHS 9-4, according to North statistics.
Lippincott threw 4 1/3 innings for the Bears, striking out one in his team's 12th loss of the season.
