The Red Devils were getting plenty of runners on base Sunday, with little to show for it.
That all changed in a fateful eighth inning.
Allen catcher Lucas Banta smacked the go-ahead run with two outs in the eighth to cap a four-run ACC rally in a 5-4 victory.
“This just showed the lack of panic in our team,” Red Devil head coach Clint Stoy said. “They just keep going.”
The rally erased what had been a frustrating day on the diamond. Allen stranded five runners in the opener, an 8-2 loss, and then left six more on base through the first seven innings of the nightcap and trailed 4-1.
But the Red Devils were ready to pounce when Neosho turned to its bullpen in relief of starter Dax Sharp.
Allen’s Levi Bennett greeted Panther pitcher Jake Beckmann’s first pitch for a double. Nathan Bach then blasted an 0-1 pitch over the left field wall to pull ACC to within 4-3. It was Bach’s second home run of the day, and his third over the four-game series.
Josh Prinner singled on the second pitch he saw, and moved to second on a wild pitch. Ayden Blachowicz smacked his third hit of the day, a single, putting runners on the corners.
Neosho’s Tyler McQuinn was summoned to pitch to ACC pinch hitter Tanner Strickland, who tied the game with an RBI grounder. Kyle Carver followed with a ground ball to second, that pushed Blachowicz to third.
Christian Altamirano worked a walk before Banta’s tie-breaking single.
“It was a frustrating day for a lot of guys for a lot of innings in a row,” Stoy said. “All of a sudden, the seal cracks because we just kept chipping away. We had the same approach all day. We knew it was eventually gonna happen. We were just hoping we weren’t gonna run out of innings before it did.”
Allen reliever Jack Neill came on to finish off the game on the mound, and worked around a one-out walk and a two-out error before slamming the door.
The Panthers dinged Allen starter Josh Fluet with a run after the Red Devils failed to complete what would have been an inning-ending double play in the second. A two-out rally led to two more NCCC runs to make it 3-0 in the third.
Allen, which left the bases loaded in the first, got on the scoreboard against Sharp in its half of the third. Sal Jacobo ripped a double down the left field line, moved to third on Josh Prinner’s two-out single, and scored when Blachowicz doubled to right.
But Prinner was thrown out at the plate on the play, snuffing the rally.
A double play short-circuited a potential fourth-inning rally, and Wiggin’s liner up the middle was snared by Neosho center fielder Reid Liston with a runner on base for the third out of the sixth. Allen then came up empty after Carter was hit by a pitch to start the seventh after the next three batters were retired in order.
