Longhorns are state champs

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
Newcastle baseball fans, dig out your passports and pack your bags because your Longhorns are headed to the Great White North for the Pacific Northwest Regional Tournament!
For the third time in six years the Senior Babe Ruth squad secured the State title, punching their ticket to the Regional Tournament, and this year they did it in style with a come-from-behind victory in the bottom of the seventh (and final) inning of the championship matchup.
“The pressure was on and our guys rose to the challenge,” head coach Alex Schaneman exclaimed. “We made an amazing comeback and now we get to go to Canada!”
The road to the championship began on Thursday as the team opened up pool play against Lander. Newcastle started hitting right off the bat and cuised to a 13-0 win.
“Grant Darrow threw three scoreless innings and got us off to a great start,” Schaneman explained. “We had to make sure we kept our pitchers at 55 throws or under because of the pitching rules. After 55, the player has to have one day of rest. If he throws more than that, he has to rest longer and we wanted to make sure that we saved guys for the rest of the tournament.”
The second game on Thursday had the Longhorns matched up against Buffalo, a team that has been a problem because they tend to hit the ball well against Newcastle.
Zach Purviance started the game on the mound and was on fire as he threw three innings. He gave up only one run and Schaneman stated that it was probably the best start he’d had all year. Josh Stevens came in as relief for the last inning and was throwing hard which resulted in being was virtually unhittable when he pitched. 
Once again, the Longhorns were on point at the plate, and as a result, took a strong lead early. Newcastle had big at-bat innings in the third and fifth with seven runs each, and held Buffalo to just one run in the fourth to take the 17-1 win. 
Cade Ostenson set the tone for his team by hitting a home run in the bottom of the first inning. 
“He just jacked the first pitch right down the pipe,” Schaneman grinned. “After that, they wouldn’t pitch to him for the rest of the game.”
The hit was a momentum shifter for Newcastle. There were two outs in the bottom of the first inning as Ostenson stepped up to the plate, and Buffalo was looking strong. The home run seemed to open up the floodgates as the rest of the team started hitting well and racked up the hits.
After day one, the squad was looking pretty good going 2-0 on the day and only giving up one run. The number one tie-breaker is runs allowed, so Schaneman’s crew was focused on keeping their opponents’ runs to a minimum. The coach added that they had a goal of trying to end games early to save pitchers for the long weekend of baseball. The mercy rule ended the game if a team was up 15 runs after three innings, or 10 runs after four innings, so the Longhorns were focused on putting on the runs as best they could for both of those reasons. 
Friday’s pool play opponent was the Gillette 2 squad, or their JV team. Nolan Turner threw the whole game and only gave up one run leading his team to a 14-1 win. It was a rough game for Gillette because they only had eight players so were playing only two outfielders. They couldn’t throw strikes either so the Longhorns accumulated most of their runs off of walks. 
However, Gavin Roady was able to hit a three-run home run when he got behind one of the good pitchers that came across the plate. 
On Saturday, the team was in the running for the first seed, and had only given up two runs in their first three games. Although they felt good about where they were sitting, Lander was trailing Newcastle by only two runs. 
“Lander played Worland right before our game on Saturday,” Schaneman began. “They won, but they only gave up two runs which gave us only a four-run lead going into our game against Casper, so the pressure was on.”
Not only did Newcastle need to win the contest, but they had to hold Casper to less than four runs in the process.
Darrow again got the call to start the game and threw four very solid innings. Schaneman had him start the fifth inning as well, but unfortunately, a Casper player hit a home run off him which is when the coach made the decision to bring in Stevens as relief. Once again, he was a force on the mound striking out every hitter who stepped up to the plate leading to a Newcastle victory of 12-1, and ensuring the number one seed heading into Sunday’s tournament play.
“Getting the number one seed was super important, because of how the matchups were on Sunday,” Schaneman nodded. “Having that number one seed made our semifinal game to start the tournament considerably easier.”
In their semifinal contest on Sunday, Newcastle was pitted against Cheyenne, a team they had defeated twice thus far this season. Cam Williams started the game on the hill, and gave up three runs in the first inning.
“He had a couple of walks, but it wasn’t really Cam’s fault,” Schaneman explained. “There were some questionable calls in the field that gave Cheyenne the advantage. After three blown calls, I approached the head umpire and told him I was going to start appealing calls directly to him. After that, they brought in a third umpire and things got better from there.”
Going into the bottom of the first, the Longhorns were down 0-3 when Sawyer Roberson stepped up and hit a two-run home run to close out the inning with only a one-point deficit. Cheyenne was able to put in one more run in the top of the second to take a 4-2 lead, but from there Newcastle kept on hitting while Cheyenne was only able to get one more run in on the day.
The Cheyenne coach was tossed from the contest at the end of the fourth inning, and Newcastle went on to win the game 17-5. At that point, runs allowed were of no concern for the Longhorns, however they still wanted to end games early in order to save pitchers for the championship matchup later in the day.
On the other side of the bracket, Lander upset Gillette 1 which Schaneman and his team considered a positive given Gillette was the only opponent they hadn’t defeated yet this year. 
“At first, we were feeling pretty good about it, but Lander played tough,” he admitted. “They had a lot of confidence defeating Gillette and they brought that with them in the championship.”
Ostenson started the contest and threw five innings. They got a run on him in the fourth inning because they were hitting well and in the fifth, Ostenson gave up a three-run home run so the Longhorns were down 0-4 going into the sixth inning. Petyton Tystad came in as relief and was flawless for the remaining two innings.
“Peyton mixes up his speed so well, and does an excellent job of keeping hitters off-balance,” Schaneman nodded. “He’s as good as anyone we have, and he didn’t give up anything.”
At the end of the sixth, Newcastle had managed to get one run in but were still down 1-4. Tystad shut out Lander in the top of the final inning of the game, but his team still had a lot to work to do in order to claim the title.
In the bottom of the seventh was when the action started. Lander made a pitching change which may have sealed their fate, as Newcastle began to heat up against him. 
“Nolan was first up and hit a base hit right down the line, and the hits kept coming after that,” Schaneman smiled. “We got in two more runs and were just behind 3-4 with only one out and the basses loaded.”
Ostenson then stepped up to the plate and hit a double which ended the contest. His line drive down the middle brought in Purviance to tie the game and Williams to win it, 5-4.
“As soon as Cade hit the ball, I knew we had just won and started celebrating,” Schaneman grinned. “We all went nuts and piled up on the field, then went to Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate. It was a great way to end the day.”
As the state champion, Schaneman is able to bring all his players to the Regional tournament in Vancouver and also has the opportunity to bring other players from other teams. At this point, Schaneman is unsure if he will be bringing anyone else in because his players are his priority. He stated that they are the team that won the state title so they are the ones who will be featured in Canada.
The tournament will host nine teams from Wyoming, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Alaska and Canada. The format consists of three days of pool play from July 16 to the 19. If Newcastle is among the top four teams at the end of pool play, they will advance to bracket play on the 20th.
The Longhorns will be doing some fundraising in order to help pay for the members. While definitive plans for that are still in the works, Schaneman does know they will be doing a Krispy Kreme donut sale as one fundraiser.
“It was a great way to win, and it couldn’t have ended any better for me since I’m leaving, and for the seniors who are playing their last season,” Schaneman smiled. “It’s been a ton of fun and I have loved this job so much.” 
The state champs will be riding the fire trucks on Wednesday, though Schaneman was unsure of the time as the paper went to press.