By Justin Albers
For The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON, Ind. —
For six innings Friday morning, Anderson Hockett Orange couldn’t buy a pressure hit.
Hockett put runners in scoring position in all but one inning and loaded the bases three times, and yet, Anderson trailed Bristol 7-5 through six because it left 11 runners on base.
But Blake Wilson and Michael Bilyeu came up with back-to-back RBI hits in the seventh inning to lift Hockett Orange to an 8-7 victory in the John Miles Memorial Tournament at Memorial Field.
Anderson had only nine players available for the game and used two pitchers that saw little action during the high school season in Parker Aul and Johnny Weis.
“It was a little different, that’s for sure,” said Hockett Orange coach Josh Mason. “I’ve never been a part of a team with only nine guys, but we pieced it together. We got some timely hitting and that was just critical in today’s game.”
Blake Abshire led off the seventh with a walk and then Aul reached base on one of six Bristol errors. After Weis struck out and lead-off hitter Trevor Kimm lined out, Cole Heberling got a run in with a hard-hit grounder to second that the Bristol infielder couldn’t handle.
That brought up Wilson, who promptly ripped an RBI-single to score Aul and keep the game alive.
It was all up to Bilyeu and he didn’t disappoint, smacking a line drive to the wall in right-center field. Heberling and Wilson both came around to score and Anderson had the lead again.
Weis sealed the win with an easy bottom of the seventh on the mound, which included back-to-back strikeouts to end it.
“I knew I had to get something done at the end of the game,” said Bilyeu, who reached base in all five of his at-bats. “I couldn’t leave them out there. I just relaxed up there at the plate.
“Blake is a really easy guy to hit behind because you know he’s always going to get a hit and get on. It makes my job a lot easier because, if I get a hit, he’ll probably score.”
Aul was almost unhittable on the mound for the first four innings, but Bristol got to him in the fifth. After giving up only three hits and one unearned run through four, Aul allowed four runs on four hits in the fifth.
“Parker knew that we were going to have to extend him a little bit today,” Mason said. “He went out and was a competitor for five innings. In the fifth inning he went in there and emptied the tank.”
Abshire added an RBI-single for Hockett Orange and Weis reached base in three of his four plate appearances. Bristol lead-off hitter Jordan Smith was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and Gaitlin Rassi knocked in two runs with a fifth-inning double.
Anderson Orange is back in action against Mishawaka at 10 a.m. today and Anderson Blue will play two consecutive games against Bristol and Muncie beginning at 5:30 p.m.
