Lee Chavez-Lara righted the Blair Junior Legion baseball ship Tuesday night.
Pushing the Bears' nightmare fifth inning out of his head, the hurler stepped onto the pitching mound against West Point and logged two scoreless innings. His fifth strikeout — with one pitch remaining on his team-imposed limit — ended a wild, 15-10 win and pushed Post 154 into the Class B Area 3 championship game at Omaha Roncalli.
Blair (21-5 overall) blew an 8-1 lead, allowing nine runs during the bottom of the fifth, but still improved to 3-0 in postseason play.
“I just try to face what's in the future,” Chavez-Lara said. “The past is the past. It's done.”
That approach complimented the Bears' success at the plate. Fifteen runs was a season-best total.
“It's not all me,” the pitcher said. “It's all of us. We all contributed to this win.”
After a 1-1 first inning, Blair scored seven straight against the Bombers. Nathan Wachter, Eli Morgan and Will Madsen notched RBI hits as the Bears appeared on their way to a comfortable victory.
It didn't work out that way.
West Point loaded the bases during the bottom of the fifth inning before Post 154 starter Blaine Rosenbaum tallied a strikeout — the second out of the frame. He left ahead by seven runs after 4 2/3 innings.
That Blair advantage evaporated as the Bombers sent 10 more batters into the box during the fifth, scoring nine runs on just one hit before the Bears could end the inning. It took a second relief pitcher to stop the onslaught, which finally ended with West Point ahead 10-8.
“I was even in the outfield thinking to myself, 'What're we going to do?'” Bear Ethan Baessler said. “We have to have some of our pitchers for tomorrow.”
The centerfielder helped make sure Post 154 moved into the next day's finals with a win. After Hunter Travis was hit by a pitch to start the top of the sixth inning, Baessler plated him with a well-timed triple to the outfield fence.
“I just tell myself I need to get those base hits, RBIs. Or triples. Or doubles,” the slugger said. “It comes up big for my team like that. It gets us all hype.”
Blair then evened the score on a West Point error before Wachter's RBI single put it ahead 11-10 through 5.5 innings. From there, Chavez-Lara took the mound and the Bears pushed their lead back out to five runs. Baessler logged his second RBI triple during the top of the seventh frame.
Even after a nightmare fifth inning, Post 154 came through and kept itself in prime position to qualify for the Class B state tournament.
“Yeah,” Baessler said. “We did.”
Turning the page and excelling in tight spots is a Blair strength, according to Chavez-Lara.
“We never give up,” he said. “We fight until the end.”
To reach Tuesday's semifinal against West Point, the Bears won a pair of one-run games on back-to-back nights. Post 154 scored the go-ahead run during the sixth inning of both outings.
Bears open with 5-4 win
Wachter plated the winning run during the sixth inning Sunday as Blair opened B3 Area Tournament play with a 5-4 victory over Waterloo-Valley.
The Bears fell behind 4-1 during the top of the fifth inning at Roncalli, but tallied three of their own runs during the bottom half to battle back. Grayson Kay singled, Kaden Sears walked and Joe Rodriguez singled to load the bases before Wachter's walk cut his team's deficit to two runs.
After a flyout, Chavez-Lara hit the ball on the ground to Waterloo-Valley's shortstop, who whiffed after pinch runner Noah Kuefler raced in front of him on his way to third base. Two runs scored and the game was even, 4-4, setting up Wachter's heroics.
Chavez-Lara earned the pitching win in relief after Sears pitched five innings and struck out two batters.
Blair beats Mount Michael by 1
Baessler, meanwhile, scored Monday's winning run on a wild pitch. The baserunner raced from third base to home plate against Elkhorn Mount Michael, scoring his team a 6-5, sixth-inning lead it held through the end of the B3 quarterfinals matchup.
Baessler led the Bears in hits, too, notching two. Travis and Kay walked twice as well.
Morgan earned the Post 154 pitching win, throwing all seven innings with four strikeouts.
The victory was the Blair Juniors' 20th of the season.
