LISBON — With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the seventh of a deadlocked game, there was no one Lisbon coach Randy Ridley wanted more at the plate than Austin Fournier.
The Greyhound junior didn’t disappoint, dropping down a perfectly-placed bunt on a designed squeeze play to score Ryley Austin from third as Lisbon walked off with a 4-3 victory over Oak Hill on Wednesday.
For Ridley, the squeeze play was a no-brainer in that situation.
“Honestely, in any game, that’s how it should be done,” Ridley said. “You need one run and have a man on third, you have a good bunter, you’re laying it down. Period. You’re taking the chance.”
Fournier is no stranger to the situation. Two years ago, when he was a freshman, he was in the same spot. The only difference then was he had two strikes on him when he executed that squeeze play. Fournier got the bunt down in his first attempt Wednesday.
“I just knew it was coming,” Fournier said. “My freshman year I had the same exact thing. We’re just out here grinding. “I just knew I had to get that bunt down, get this game over.”
Riley Austin led off the inning with a walk and moved over to second on a balk. A wild pitch sent him to third with no outs before relief pitcher Jonah Martin struck out RJ Sargent for the first out.
Martin injured his calf in the process and Adam Merrill came on to try and force extra innings. Oak Hill coach Matt Bray opted to intentionally walk both Kyle Bourget and Tyler Halls to load the bases before Fournier ended it on the next pitch.
“He got the bunt down,” Bray said. “You can move in your guys but then he won’t bunt. It’s a situation where we liked our options on a force play. We were hoping for a hard bunt that we could flip home.”
The Greyhounds (7-2) never led until the end. The Raiders took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
Halls struck out the first three batters he faced, but a dropped third strike allowed Martin to advance to first and prolong the inning. Martin stole second and Dalton Therrien brought him home with an RBI double to left field.
Lisbon responded in the bottom half of the inning without ever making contact with the baseball. Austin walked to leadoff the frame, moved over to second on a balk and scored after two wild pitches. Surrendering free runs have plagued the Raiders this season.
“They didn’t touch the bat to the ball and scored a run,” Bray said. “Giving away free runs have hurt this team all year. That’s something a young team does, but needs to stop doing half way through the season and we’re working on it.”
The Raiders (3-6) reclaimed the lead in the fifth with more timely two-out hitting. Martin delivered an RBI triple to deep left-center to score Jake Bannister and Therrien plated Martin with a single to center to give Oak Hill a 3-1 lead.
The lead would once again not hold up as Lisbon came back with two runs of its own in the bottom half. After loading the bases with no outs, Austin singled to left field to score Darren Ward and a two-out bloop single to shallow center by Halls tied the game.
“We keep positive energy inside the dugout,” Halls said. “We work as a team and that’s how it goes.”
Halls picked up the win on the mound, striking out 11 in a complete-game effort. He walked just one and scattered seven hits. Halls’ curveball was working from the beginning and gave Oak Hill batters fits.
“Catcher just kept giving me the sign and I threw it,” Halls said. “It was working a lot. They were off-balance on it. It worked.”
Oak Hill’s 2-3-4 hitters were responsible for all seven of the team’s hits. Therrien was a perfect 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs at the plate, and flashed some leather at shortstop with a diving catch to his left to rob Joe Philbrick of a base hit up the middle in the sixth. Therrien did all this despite injury.
“I think Dalton Therrien is the best offensive player in the conference,” Bray said. “He has a torn hamstring. The bottom of his hamstring has a tear. He’s a fantastic ball player. He’s one of the strongest players in the conference as a junior. We’re really excited about his future.”
Bannister also collected three hits, finishing 3-for-4 with a run scored.
Fournier and Philbrick led the Greyhounds offensively with two hits each.
Oak Hill starting pitcher Matt Arnold allowed three runs on seven hits over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out four and walked three in the loss.
With the win, the Greyhounds improved to 4-1 in one-run games.
“Overall, I thought we played very well,” Ridley said. “They hit the ball, Arnold did a great job on the mound keeping us off-balance. In games like that it’s tough to have a loser because both teams played very well. Key hits in key situations, nice plays in nice situations. It was a good baseball game.”
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