COLONY — Rarely are teams so disappointed with a convincing victory — in the playoffs, no less — and in a game in which the victors also threw a no-hitter.
Such was the case Wednesday as Crest High slogged through a 9-1 victory over Northern Heights to open the Class 2-1A Regional Baseball Tournament.
The win puts Crest (18-7) into the regional semifinals, where the Lancers will play on Monday against Pleasanton, a 7-5 winner over Jayhawk-Linn. The tournament semifinals, and championship game to follow, will be held at the Central Heights High School baseball diamond in rural Richmond. The champion advances to the state tournament in Great Bend May 23-24.
“I’m not happy with the way we played, not one bit,” Lancer head coach Roland Weir said. “We had some guys who hit the ball, but we can’t play defensively like we did and expect to get to state. We’ve got to practice hard, step up our game and quit making the mistakes we’re making.”
Crest pitchers Ryan Golden and Drake Weir combined to no-hit Northern Heights. Golden struck out 11 over four innings. Drake Weir had five Ks over the final three frames.
But walks (nine of them) and errors (five) were an issue.
Golden worked out of trouble on multiple occasions. Two walks and an error loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the third before Golden struck out the next two batters and then tagged out Wildcat baserunner Leo Dedonder, who attempted to score from third on a wild pitch.
Golden then walked the first two batters of the fourth inning before bouncing back with three straight strikeouts.
He exited, having thrown 95 pitchers — 47 strikes — over four innings.
The trend continued when Drake Weir came on in relief.
An error and two walks led to another Northern Heights rally, but Weir picked off a runner at second and then struck out the final batter of the frame to keep the Wildcats off the board.
Meanwhile, Crest got an early spark from Henry White, who led off the Lancer first with a triple. He came home on a wild pitch for a 1-0 lead.
The Lancers scored two in the bottom of the third. Rogan Weir drove in Logan Kistner with a single. He then came around to score on a throwing error by the Wildcat catcher for a 3-0 advantage.
A stray pebble sparked Crest’s biggest rally of the night, a six-run sixth inning.
Kade Nilges hit a dribbler down the first-base line, and it was veering into foul territory, when the ball clipped the pebble and changed the ball’s course back into the fair side of the baseline as Nilges hit the base. Jensen Barker followed with a single, and Brayden Goodell’s perfectly placed sacrifice bunt attempt turned into a throwing error for Northern Heights, bringing home Nilges.
The play was significant in that Northern Heights starter Cooper Hamlin had to exit the game because of his pitch count.
Jerry Rodriguez greeted reliever Nathaniel Ciero with a two-run double, making it 6-0. Rodriguez scored on a Wildcat error before Rogan Weir roped an RBI double to left. Drake Weir’s ground ball to first was misplayed for yet another error for Crest’s final run of the game.
“We’ve got to tip our caps to Hamlin,” Coach Weir said. “He threw well.”
Crest missed out on a shutout after another wacky play prevented the Lancers from retiring a runner at third base in the top of the seventh. Northern Heights had runners on first and second, and it seemed like Crest had the lead runner dead to rights after he ventured too far off the base.
But the runner was awarded third in the subsequent run-down, after the umpires ruled the Lancers obstructed the runner’s basepath. “You’re supposed to cycle out the fielders, and we didn’t do a good job of that,” Coach Weir said. “That play should never have happened.”
