(Marion) – Marion bounced back from its first loss of the 2022 baseball season Thursday night with a pair of dramatic home wins on Friday to edge Columbus two-games-to-one and advance through the area round of the Class-3A playoffs.
The Cardinals stunned the previously 25-0 Bulldogs 3-2 in Columbus to open the series, but the Bulldogs responded with a 4-2 win in Marion to tie the best-of-three and rallied for a 2-1 win in the Game 3 clincher.
Columbus used a pair of RBI singles from Conner Geisler to build a 2-0 lead in Game 2 and put Marion on the brink of elimination, but Bryce Gonyer drove in Cameron Baumann and Lane Paweled with a double to tie it up in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Jake Burris doubled in the bottom of the fifth, and his courtesy runner Dominic Castellanos sprinted home on Ty Blake’s RBI single to put the Bulldogs in front by a run. Gonyer singled in Baumann later in the frame to give Marion a 4-2 cushion.
Ryken Autry relieved starting pitcher Konner Harborth in the seventh and worked around a walk with two strikeouts to notch the save. Harborth moved his record to 7-0, allowing two runs (one earned) and striking out six over the first six innings before his pitch count neared the allowed limit at 107.
Columbus scored an unearned run on a Marion error to take a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning of the third and deciding game.
Kallen Bek singled to lead off the bottom of the sixth, stole second, took third on a grounder by Burris, and scored the tying run on a Blake single.
Castellanos came on to run for Burris and advanced to third on Blake’s hit. After Columbus head coach Heath Allen called time to settle his battery and infield down, Castellanos sprinted toward the plate as soon as pitcher Ryan Lewis went into his motion on the next delivery. Baumann put down a bunt as Castellanos raced in for the go-ahead run.
“The second he called time and brought everybody up, I looked at Baumann and said you know what we’re about to do here, right,’ and Baumann said ‘absolutely coach, we’re squeezing,” Marion head coach Tim Tesch said. “We had it put in from the get-go. The second he was in the wind-up, we had the suicide squeeze on. Dom might have stole home if he didn’t put the bunt down, but he put the bunt down, it worked out in our favor, and I’m just super proud of these guys and this coaching staff to be able to go play in the next round.”
Zach Halter went the distance on the mound in Game 3 to move his record to 8-0. He allowed the lone unearned run on four hits and struck out three with no walks in seven innings.
Tesch tipped his cap to Harborth, Autry, and Halter for their pitching performances with Marion’s season hanging in the balance.
“Konner came out in game one, and they hit him a little bit in the beginning, but he kind of settled in, pitched really well, went the limit, and then we’re blessed to have relievers to come in and shut it down, so Ryken came in closed it for us, and we played solid defense behind them” the coach said. “And then Zach in game two, man, I don’t know how many pitches he threw, he was just locked in, and he was a gamer tonight. That’s the reason he’s going to go play at the next level, and we played awesome defense behind him. Pitching and defense will win you games, man, all the time.”
Gonyer went 2-2 with a double and three RBIs in Friday’s early game. Blake went a combined 3-6 and drove in a run in each game.
The pitching was there for Marion in Thursday’s series opener, but the defense suffered a hiccup with five errors, and Columbus capitalized with two unearned runs to hand the Bulldogs their only loss of the year.
Gonyer only allowed two hits in eight innings, struck out eight, and walked three. Bek and Autry each went 2-4 at the plate. Beck and Halter each drove in a run.
Marion trailed 3-1 entering the seventh inning and cut the deficit in half when Bek singled in Chase Hallmark with two outs. Autry represented the tying run at third base, but Columbus starting pitcher Dylan Zajicek induced a ground-out from Blake to punctuate his second playoff win over Marion in as many seasons.
The Bulldogs take a 27-1 record in the 3A Region IV quarterfinals against either Blanco or Tidehaven. That series had yet to go final at press time.