Blevins clutch pitching, walkoff sends Bobcats to regionals

LOGAN — There’s an old cliche that says you can’t keep a good man down.

In the case of the Green Bobcats, you can’t keep a good team down.

The Green Bobcats rallied late and scored the winning run in the seventh inning to edge the Trimble Tomcats 4-3 on Friday and capture their second straight Division 7 district championship.

Green trailed 3-2 after five innings, but scored single runs in each of the last two innings to get the win.

“Any time you make a tournament run you have to have a little luck somewhere, but you have to have resiliency, too, and this group of guys definitely has that,” said Green coach Dave Shoupe.

“One of our goals was to win the district again and these guys have worked hard to get where they are. I’m just so proud of them and what they’ve overcome and fought through to get our program to this point.”

Green (22-4) will play Strasburg-Franklin in the regional semifinals at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Ohio University.

Strasburg-Franklin (21-7) beat Hannibal River 7-0 in its district title game.

Down 3-2, Green tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning when Gabe Blevins singled, stole second, took third on a one-out single by Noah McMackin and then scored when Uriah Satterfield followed with his own base hit to left field.

Blevins not only scored the tying run, he drove in the winning run and threw a complete game on the mound to get the win.

Riddick Jenkins walked to lead off the seventh, Mason Neal reached on an error to put runners on the corners and then Blevins hit a single to left field to drive home Jenkins with the winning run.

Blevins gave up 8 hits, 3 earned runs, struck out 6, walked 2 and threw 106 pitches with 68 being strikes.

Trimble’s Caleb Cahoe took the loss as he went 6 innings, gave up 8 hits, 3 earned runs, struck out 6, walked 3 and he threw 86 pitches and 57 were strikes.

It took only two pitches for the Bobcats to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Jenkins hit the first pitch for a triple and Neal hit the next pitch for an RBI single.

Green took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Satterfield walked, moved up on a passed ball and ground out, and scored on a single by Conner Blanton.

Trimble (19-7) got a run in the third inning when Kolby Fouts got a leadoff single, took second on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out single by Cahoe.

The Tomcats took the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth inning.

With one out, Fouts singled, R McDowell walked and both Paul Sharp and Cahoe singled in a run.

The pitchers were two of the top hitters in the game. Blevins was 2-3 with an RBI for Green and Cahoe was 2-3 with 2 RBI for Trimble.

Noah McMackin was 2-3 for Green, Satterfield 1-2 with an RBI, Jenkins 1-2 whose triple was the only extra base hit of the game, Neal 1-4 with an RBI, and Blanton 1-3 with an RBI.

Trimble’s Bradley Cahoe was 3-3, Fouts 2-3 and Sharp 1-4 with an RBI.

Trimble 001 020 0 = 3 8 2

Green 110 001 1 = 4 8 0

Caleb Cahoe and Bradley Cahoe. Gabe Blevins and Noah McMackin. W-Blevins (IP-7.0, H-8, R-3, ER-3, K-6, BB-2). L-C. Cahoe (IP-6.0, H-8, R4, ER-3, K-6, BB-3). Hitting–Trimble: Paul Sharp 1-4 RBI Caleb Cahoe 2-3 2-RBI, Bradley Cahoe 3-3, Kolby Fouts 2-3; Green: Riddick Jenkins 1-2 3B, Mason Neal 1-4 RBI, Gabe Blevins 2-3 RBI, Noah McMackin 2-3, Uriah Satterfield 1-2 RBI, Conner Blanton 1-3 RBI.