PCM advances to district final, loses to East Marshall

PLEASANTVILLE — The PCM baseball team came into the Class 2A District 12 championship game averaging about two errors per game.

If the Mustangs’ defense stayed true to its season average, the outcome may have been different.

Unfortunately, the defense wasn’t sharp, and sixth-seeded East Marshall took full advantage during an 11-4 win at Pleasantville High School on July 14.

The battle of Mustangs went to East Marshall in large part because PCM committed nine errors. Only four of the 11 runs scored by East Marshall were earned.

“That’s the first thing we addressed after the game. Did we deserve to win? We wanted to win, but if you can’t play defense it’s going to be tough to win a ball game with that many errors,” PCM baseball coach Jeff Lindsay said. “You really can’t feel like you deserve to win. I would have loved to have won tonight, but we didn’t play clean baseball.”

Each team had eight hits at the plate. PCM drew three walks and was hit by a pitch. East Marshall walked four times and was hit by one pitch. The strikeouts were about even, too.

The main difference was the miscues, and PCM’s nine was five more than East Marshall’s four.

“We did what we were supposed to do on the mound,” Lindsay said. “We were in the game. Unfortunately, there were too many times when we gave them extra outs, and they took advantage of it. That’s hard to battle back from.”

The Mustangs advanced to the district championship game after a thrilling come-from-behind win over top-seeded Pleasantville in the semifinal round on July 10.

PCM trailed 7-4 after six innings but scored four runs in the seventh to win 8-7.

Against East Marshall, PCM sophomore Derek Brown started on the mound and went 4 2/3 innings. He took the loss after allowing six runs — three earned — on five hits. Brown struck out 10 and walked three.

Brown was pulled in the fifth inning after his pitch count reached 102. Senior Noah Henkenius finished the game, allowing five runs — one earned — on three hits with two strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter.

“We were hoping to get five out of (Brown),” Lindsay said. “It was a hot night, and I wasn’t going to put his health at risk by stretching him out further. He has better things ahead in his career.

“Noah was ready, and he came in and did a good job, but we were unable to squeeze the ball.”

Both teams scored unearned runs in the first inning.

Brown (2-4) struck out Austin Elliott to lead off the game but a dropped third strike allowed Elliott to reach. He later scored on an RBI double by senior Justin Ridout.

East Marshall committed two of its four errors in the bottom of the first inning.

Junior Preston Van Wyk singled with one out and then stole second base. Junior Wes Cummings reached on an infield single, and Van Wyk scored when the throw to first was off target.

Neither team scored in the second, but East Marshall (13-14) got back in front in the top of the third.

Elliott again reached on an error, stole second and scored on another RBI hit from Ridout.

PCM grabbed its first lead in the bottom half. Junior Reed Worth and Van Wyk had back-to-back singles to start the frame. A balk plated Worth and moved Van Wyk to second. Van Wyk then stole third before scoring on Cummings’ RBI ground out.

The fifth-seeded Mustangs stranded two on base in the third and left eight on base in the game.

East Marshall tied the game with a single run in the fourth. Another error put Kam Hoskins on base, and he moved up to second on a wild pitch. With two outs, Elliott brought Hoskins home with an RBI single.

Ridout, who started on the mound and got the win after throwing the first six innings, put East Marshall back in front for good with a solo home run in the top of the fifth.

Brown got Ridout to hit a playable foul ball two pitches before the blast, but PCM was unable to make the catch in foul territory.

It was Ridout’s fifth homer of the season. He was 4-for-4 with a hit by pitch and four RBIs in the game.

“We should have gotten him out a pitch or two before the home run,” Lindsay said. “If we make that play, and he doesn’t get the home run, you never know. That kind of rejuvenated them a little bit.”

Brown struck out the next two batters after Ridout’s homer, but Hoskins doubled and Tyler DeBondt walked.

That’s when Lindsay went to Henkenius, and Colton Weese greeted him with a two-run single to make it 6-3.

PCM (12-14) got one run back in the bottom of the fifth.

Juniors Brayton Van Dyke and Olin Meinders and freshman Caleb Duinink hit consecutive singles with two outs. Duinink’s hard hit to the outfield was an RBI hit that scored Van Dyke and trimmed PCM’s deficit to 6-4.

That would be the final run for PCM though as Ridout (5-2) allowed three earned runs on eight hits with eight strikeouts and three walks.

“He didn’t do anything special. We just didn’t quite get the back-to-back hits we needed,” Lindsay said.

“We also didn’t always get guys on early in the innings like we had been doing. We didn’t quite get the ball squared up and some of the ones we did get squared up on were right at people.”

Ridout was taken out after throwing 106 pitches over six innings. DeBondt allowed no runs and no hits in the seventh to close out the win.

PCM stranded two runners on base against DeBondt as Meinders reached on an error and senior Colton Warrick was hit by a pitch.

The only earned run Henkenius allowed came in the top of the seventh. He walked Zane Johnson with one out, and then Johnson stole second. Ridout drove in Johnson with an RBI single to make it 11-4.

Before the final run in the seventh, East Marshall batted around and scored four unearned runs in the sixth.

Henkenius induced five ground balls to the infield but only one resulted in an out. Elliott, Johnson and Zach Jacobson all reached on errors and Ridout was hit by a pitch before an out was recorded.

With one out, Hoskins reached on another error and DeBondt followed with a two-run single, the only hit in the inning.

East Marshall took an eight-game win streak into the 2A Substate 6 championship game. The Mustangs faced Centerville on July 17 in Pella.

Van Wyk finished with two hits, two steals and two runs for PCM. He capped his season with a team-best .489 batting average and a team-high 32 runs and 22 steals.

Van Dyke also had two hits, one steal and one run. Worth, Cummings, Meinders and Duinink all had one hit apiece. Cummings and Duinink each had an RBI and Worth scored a run.

Mustangs advance to district final after thrilling win over top-seeded Trojans

PLEASANTVILLE — Van Dyke was taken off the mound with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning on July 10.

The Mustangs were up by one run but Van Dyke had just walked two straight batters to load the bases.

It would have been easy to sulk and walk back to his shortstop position with his head down. Instead, Van Dyke made sure he played a role in his team advancing to the Class 2A District 12 semifinals.

Van Dyke snagged a hard line drive to the hole with the bases loaded, and the diving catch ended the Trojans’ threat and secured the 8-7 victory for PCM.

“I barely caught. I got it with my fingertips. It was close though,” Van Dyke said.

It was a much different outcome then when these two teams played on July 2 in Prairie City. Pleasantville won that game 12-1.

The Mustangs led 4-0 early but trailed 7-4 entering the seventh inning. PCM batted around in the top of the seventh and scored four runs to take the lead despite only getting one hit in the frame.

Pleasantville (23-12) committed three of its five errors in the seventh. The final error came on a potential game-ending double play. Trojan senior shortstop Gauge Van Haalen fielded the ground ball and stepped on second base for the second out but his throw on the potential double play was off target.

The bases were loaded and the game was tied before the ground ball. Van Dyke scored the game-winning run on the error.

“It speaks a lot of the character of the kids on this team and the perseverance this team has,” Lindsay said. “They never feel like they are out of a game. They truly believe they’ll have an opportunity to win if we are within three or four runs.”

It looked like PCM may run away with the win early against top-seeded Pleasantville. The Mustangs got an early boost from Duinink and sophomore Dane Owens. Both of them hit two-run home runs to right field to put the visitors up 4-0 in the second inning.

Van Dyke walked and stole second base to begin the frame. He scored on Duinink’s first career varsity home run.

Brown then singled with one out and scored on Owens’ first career blast.

Pleasantville starter Kyle Amendt struck out the side in the inning but the damage had already been done.

“It was awesome. I can’t put this into words,” Duinink said. “I wanted to play more. The team wants to play more. We don’t want to stop yet.”

Owens added, “It feels good to still be playing. I think it’s anyone’s game now. I don’t think we are done yet.”

After giving up the early lead, Amendt settled down. He held PCM to two base runners in the next three innings. That allowed the Trojans to catch back up.

Cael Lester started the bottom of the second with a solo home run, and then the home team plated four runs on three hits and one error in the third.

All four of those runs were earned against Henkenius, who started on the mound. He hit two batters in the inning, including one with the bases loaded.

Pleasantville took a 5-4 lead into the fourth and added to its lead with a pair of runs. This time, the runs were unearned as the Mustangs committed a two-out error with the bases loaded. Henkenius did hit two more batters in that inning though.

“Noah has been there before. He’s a gritty competitor. He leads by example,” Lindsay said. “I asked him if his tank was empty when I visited the mound, and he said no. So then I told him to pitch like it wasn’t empty. It’s his last go around. He needs to just let it go and don’t hold anything back.”

Henkenius (3-3) got the win after pitching into the seventh inning. He allowed seven runs — five earned — on seven hits with one strikeout and four hit batters.

Henkenius stranded a runner on second in the fifth and got out of a jam in the sixth. Pleasantville reached on two PCM errors in that frame, but Henkenius got out of the inning after inducing a ground ball to Van Dyke at shortstop.

He was removed after throwing one pitch — a ball — in the seventh inning.

“I rode him as long as I could. Once he threw that first ball in the seventh, I knew he was done so I pulled him then,” Lindsay said.

Henkenius was pulled after PCM took the lead in the top half of the seventh against Trojan reliever Colton Major.

They sent nine batters to the plate in the frame. Worth reached base for the first time in the game when Trojan centerfielder Devon Dursky dropped a fly ball. Van Wyk was then hit by a pitch. Both runners moved up a base on a passed ball.

With one out, Cummings made it 7-5 with an RBI single. Another error in center field allowed Van Wyk to score and pull the Mustangs within 7-6 and then Cummings tied the game when he scored on another passed ball.

Duinink’s ground ball set up the final run but could have been a game-ending double play. Van Dyke scored on an error to give the Mustangs the lead for good.

“We just stuck with it. Anything can happen and we showed that again,” Van Dyke said.

Van Dyke is PCM’s designated closer. He came into the game after Henkenius started Major with a ball on his first pitch.

Van Dyke walked Major, got Caleb Adreon to ground out and then struck out Dursky looking. He loaded the bases though after walking Van Haalen and Grant Fouch.

That’s when Lindsay made the move to Brown, who got Amendt to line out to Van Dyke for the game-ending out.

​“Derek has been on a little bit of a roll lately,” Lindsay said. “I wanted him to challenge the kid and not nibble with him. I give Noah a lot of credit for hanging in there and I give the other guys credit too for getting outs.”

Brown said he wanted the ball in the seventh when his team needed him to deliver.

“I just tried to trust them behind me and do my thing. It worked out,” Brown said. “When I saw that he caught it I went crazy. He snow-coned that ball. It was close.”

Van Dyke set the school record with six saves last season. He set the career saves record this season after closing out two games for the Mustangs. Not finishing the game was frustrating for the Mustang junior, but Van Dyke made up for it with an impressive diving catch to end the game.

“I wanted to finish it. It’s been my thing. I just couldn’t seem to find the zone,” Van Dyke said. “I threw a lot of pitches out of the zone that I usually throw for strikes. It was frustrating.”