Giants' rally punches semifinal ticket

Jeremy Hahn and Joseph Lucas are usually associated with great pitching.
Last night, it was their hitting.
Both players played key roles in the sixth inning as Waynesboro rallied to steal a 3-2 Region III quarterfinal win over visiting William Byrd at Kate Collins Field Tuesday.
Down 2-0, Hahn — who had collected two of the three Little Giant hits — opened the sixth with a four-pitch walk to chase Terrier’s pitcher Brett LaPradd.
“Right before the sixth, we huddled up and talked about how we were going to hit the ball,” Hahn said. “I told [the team] that I was going to get on base and for them to follow and that’s exactly what happened.”
Stevie Moreland coaxed a walk from reliever Kevin Bowles and Derek Hall followed with a hard RBI-single to right field to put Waynesboro on the board.
“We were hitting the ball [but] we were just hitting it right at people,” Little Giants coach Jim Critzer said. “We got some breaks in the sixth inning and we made things happen.”
Waynesboro did catch a break when Will Freeman was given another free pass by Bowles to load the bases with no outs.
That’s when Lucas — the No. 9 hitter in the lineup — strode to the plate.
Bowles got two quick strikes on Lucas but the junior evened the count as he watched two fastballs pass just off the plate. The Terrier hurler then tossed a nice curve that fooled Lucas, but he managed to get just enough of the pitch to drop a Texas-Leaguer between center, left and short. Moreland started to tag, then realized the ball would fall in and scampered home with the tying run.
“As I started to swing, I knew it was a bad pitch to hit,” Lucas said. “But it fell in and we scored.”
As Lucas was being replaced by courtesy runner Aaron Lamb, Byrd coach Steve Sizemore used his third pitcher of the inning, Jacob McMillan. McMillan got the first out of the frame when Terrell Thompson grounded to Terrier shortstop Brandon Garnett who nailed Derek Hall at the plate.
But Eric Hall delivered the game-winning RBI when he bounced to short. Garnett started a double play attempt at second to get Terrell Thompson, but a hustling Eric Hall beat the throw to first. Lamb rounded third and headed for home and first-baseman Travis Coffman threw a strike to catcher Jon Zimmerman who tagged Lamb for the out.
Lucas returned to the mound and retired the side after allowing Bowles his second bunt single of the night. The speedster then stole second to put Lucas on the hot seat.
“I was just trying to get a ground ball,” he said of pitching with the tying run on second. “If I could do that, I knew we could hold [Bowles] at second.”
Aaron Stidham complied, hitting a slow grounder to Jay Thompson at short. Thompson glanced over at Bowles and tossed to first for the out. Lucas struck out Ryan Beyel for out No. 2 and got Dean to end it on Jay Thompson’s second chance of the inning.
The junior picked up the win — and more importantly — punched his ticket to Thursday’s semifinal at Amherst. He pitched a complete-game five hitter and struck out 10 Terriers.
“Early on, [Byrd] wasn’t catching up to my fastball,” Lucas said. “I went to my curve and changeup the second time around [the order] and kept them off balance.”
Lucas praised the Little Giants defense for keeping Waynesboro in the game.
“The defense played great,” he said. “Terrell made a great catch and saved a couple of runs and Jay [Thompson] made some good plays in the last inning.”
Terrell Thompson laid out on a diving catch with two outs and two on in the second inning that saved at least one run and Jay Thompson ended the game in the seventh by moving in front of the bag at second to snare a grounder and nip a sprinting Dean at the base.
Including the second, Lucas worked out of trouble a couple of times before getting the win.
“Joseph has a way of working out of jams,” Critzer said. “He’s as cool as a cucumber out there [on the mound].”
But Critzer already had his eye on Thursday’s regional semifinal:
“Hey. We win Thursday and we go back to state.”
Enough said.