It was Blaine Rosenbaum who stood atop the mound in another high-pressure situation.
Ahead by a single run, the right-handed Blair Senior Legion pitcher needed just three more outs to close out the Class B Area 3 Baseball Tournament final and help his team qualify for the state tournament.
“After my last at-bat, I went and sat on the bench,” Rosenbaum said Tuesday night in Fort Calhoun. “People just told me, 'Hey, nobody better than you.'”
It was enough to get his mind right.
“I just envisioned myself striking the guys out,” he said.
The pitcher and his defense produced a 1-2-3 top of the seventh inning, besting Waterloo-Valley 7-6 and earning a state trip to Holdrege. Post 154's next game is, unofficially, Saturday.
Overall, coach James Bilslend's team is 35-5 after a four-game sweep through the Area tourney.
“We just like to win ballgames,” Rosenbaum said. “There's no worse feeling than losing a ballgame.”
Tuesday's victory came with a slight bump in the road. After building a 5-2 advantage with RBI swings by Brady Brown, Nate Wachter and Nelson Kosch, the game was delayed by lightning during the top of the fourth inning. The break took about 40 minutes as light rain fell.
The Bears' winning pitcher, Lucas Matejka, who finished with nine strikeouts, had to wait and watch before play resumed. Once it did, Waterloo-Valley scored three runs to pull even, 5-5, as Blair committed a couple of inopportune errors in its infield.
Post 154 snapped out of it, though, when it came back up to bat.
“Those conditions make everything harder,” Brown said. “It took us few tries to get things our way, but, once we did, we calmed down and get it done.”
“It was on them,” Bilslend noted afterward. “(Coach) John (Roan), Morgan (Rump) and myself didn't say anything to them.”
Dylan Swanson led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a walk before Carter Saylor bunted himself on base. A Wingnut double play slowed Blair, but Tanner Jacobson and Greyson Kay both walked to load the bases back up.
That's when Brown delivered his third and fourth RBIs of the ballgame, hitting the ball hard on the ground into left field.
“Those RBIs were big, but I wouldn't have any RBIs if my teammates didn't do their job getting on base,” the outfielder said. “They did their job and then I did mine.”
Brown later made a diving catch in centerfield as Post 154 protected its lead.
“You could tell they just wanted to win,” Rosenbaum said of his defense's effort. “We wanted to get out of here.”
The Bears did in the seventh when the relief pitcher secured the last three outs in another high-pressure situation. He struck out the first batter he faced before both Kay and Saylor handled grounders and got the ball to Swanson at first base to end the game.
“It just shows that, when his teammates need him and call on him, he'll be there to deliver,” Brown said of Rosenbaum's effort.
The victory secured many of the Senior Legion baseball players' second state berth of 2024 after they reached the NSAA's Class B State Championships in May.
“We've always just had the same goal,” Rosenbaum said. “Go to state, no matter what the situation is.”
Blair did it during the summer months with 35 wins in 40 tries.
“It's a tribute to the boys,” Bilslend said. “The dedication and the work they put in.”
Post 154's first-round state matchup Saturday in Holdrege wasn't official as of Wednesday morning.
Blair wins semis matchup
The Post 154 Bears advanced to the Area 3 finals with a 6-1 win Sunday against the Kelly Ryan Pride. The Omaha Roncalli team led 1-0 after a third-inning score, but Blair won when it took advantage of fifth-inning free bases to score six runs.
Bears Lee Chavez-Lara, Swanson and Kay all walked during the decisive inning, while Saylor, Wachter and Kosch logged hits. Wachter ultimately closed the game 2-for-3 with a triple from the batter's box, notching two RBIs. Kosch and Saylor plated runs with their fifth-inning swings, too.
Chavez-Lara, meanwhile, finished a complete game pitching performance with the win. He struck out seven and allowed just three hits across seven innings in Fort Calhoun.
POST 154 SENIOR LINE SCORES
Tuesday
Blair 7, Waterloo-Valley 6
W-VALLEY 1 0 1 3 0 1 0 — 6 8 3
BLAIR (35-5) 4 0 1 2 0 0 X — 7 5 4
Sunday
Blair 6, Kelly Ryan Pride 1
BLAIR (34-5) 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 — 6 4 0
KELLY RYAN 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 — 1 3 2
