Haymarket wins in 13 innings

COVINGTON—The Haymarket Senators refused to return home from Covington down two games in the Valley Baseball League championship series. Every time the Lumberjacks threatened to break the tie the two clubs had been locked in since the third inning, the Senators pitchers and defense found a way to escape without surrendering a run.

Then, in the 13th inning, Haymarket put a rally of its own together.

With one out and two on, Jim Vahalik walked from the on deck circle towards the batters’ box before head coach Ryan Fecteau called to him from the third base coach’s box. The second-year coach wanted to tell his catcher to be patient and get a good pitch considering the previous two batters both walked.

On the third pitch of the at-bat, Vahalik smacked a base hit up the middle of the diamond, dropping into the outfield grass right in front of the Covington center fielder, plating Mike Demma easily.

“It was a good pitch, just over the plate a little bit,” Vahalik said. “I actually told Michael Lang before I went up that I was going to get a base hit up the middle to score Demma.”

As prescient as Vahalik claimed to be, he likely could not have foretold that his club, which hadn’t scored since Scott Van Dusseldorp’s single 10 innings prior, would tack on four more runs on the way to an 8-3 victory in 13 frames, tying the best-of-five series at a game apiece.

Five straight Senators scored in the final inning, with the final two crossing home on Tom La Stella’s double.

Vahalik’s hit, his first of the game, was the result of extra time in the batting cage working on driving the ball up the middle.

“He’s gotten into trouble this year where he pulls off and he’ll hit those grounders sometimes, rolling his hands over,” Fecteau said. “This past probably three or four weeks he’s been working really hard staying up the middle, [keeping his hands] inside the baseball. When he does that, he can be a very good hitter.”

The Senators (27-23) bullpen delivered just as much as Vahalik, shutting down ’Jacks rallies whenever needed.

Matt Suschak earned the win, throwing five hitless innings in relief and struck all three hitters he faced in the 13th. All told, Suschak retired 11 on strikes out of the bullpen.

“His slider was on today,” Vahalik said. “Mark Andrews pitched real well for us, too. I don’t know how many innings he threw scoreless, but it was pretty amazing.”

Andrews, in fact, didn’t allow a run while scattering three hits over five and two thirds, taking over for starter Mark Kuzma with one out in the third.

The victory may prove to be a costly one, however. Center fielder Andrew Lawrence left the game in the 11th after rolling his left ankle rounding second base when Demma laid down a sacrifice bunt. Medical staff on hand was unable to determine the extent of the injury because there was already significant swelling by the time they examined him.

The Boston College product said he will likely be reevaluated Monday by doctors closer to Haymarket, but he was not optimistic.

“With how much swelling there was, they said it could be a fracture,” Lawrence said. “It might be a sprain, but they weren’t sure.”

Lawrence is batting .272 with three home runs and 25 RBI this year. He has been a valuable defensive player, too, recording 92 putouts in center with an assist and just two errors.

Covington travels to Battlefield High School for Game 3 Monday with the first pitch scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Game 4 will be played at Casey Field in Covington and, if it is necessary, the Senators will host Game 5.