O’FALLON – Baseball championships often are not decided on how a team reacts when things go right, but the response they muster when things are going completely wrong.
Aurora proved that in the Class 4 State championship game on Friday as the Houn’ Dawgs rallied from a three-run deficit in the final two innings to beat Lutheran South 5-3 and win the program’s first state title at CarShield field in O’Fallon.
Zac Shoemaker, who had given up just one earned run all year and seven walks, struggled with the strike zone and patient Lancer hitters. They worked eight walks and scored three runs before chasing Shoemaker with two outs in the fourth due to pitch count rules.
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“They were very patient at the plate. Zac was a little frustrated not getting the calls that he usually gets. We preach to him to pitch at the bottom of the zone. He didn’t make the adjustments necessary to get the pitches we needed,” Hoffman said. “They did a very good job to get him out in the fifth inning at 105 pitches; hats off to them and their hitters and coaching staff for building that type of approach.”
Aurora turned to closer Austin Erickson to hold Lutheran South down and keep the Houn’ Dawgs in it. Nerves could get the best of some pitchers in that situation, but not the Aurora junior.
“The pressure isn’t on the pitcher it is more of on the hitters to try to find the new arm and figure him out, so there really wasn’t much pressure,” Erickson said.
With two out and a runner on first, Erickson calmly struck out the Lutheran South batter on five pitches to get Aurora back in the dugout, trailing 3-0.
It was a dugout that badly needed a boost with just six outs to work with.
“They (Lutheran South) are a very good team and their pitcher was cruising. About the fourth or fifth inning you look in the dugout, you have kids talking but their body language tells me something else; basically that they think it is over,” Hoffman said. “We brought them out and we talked to them a little bit and explained to them it is not how you feel right now. You have to flip the switch and fake it unitl you make it. Attitude is a decision.”
That switch flipped two batters into Aurora’s half of the sixth. Wyatt Sparks lead off with a four-pitch walk. Then Mathew Miller hit a two-run home that will become legendary in Aurora. He cleared the 30-foot high wall in right field to give the Houn’ Dawgs a much needed boost, pulling them within a run.
“We knew he could hit home runs, but we didn’t know he could do that. That fence is high. He crushed that ball,” Jeremiah Fisher said.
“I hit it and everybody amped up and everything just started happening. It was a team effort the whole way. We never gave up. Our coach always says it’s a marathon not a sprint and we proved that today,” Miller said.
The marathon mentality was a key thing to focus on for Aurora in the sixth, as the Houn’ Dawgs still trailed by a run with six outs to work with. Gage Singer and Preston Naylor hit back-to-back singles to give Aurora runners on first and second with no outs. Shoemaker came up and flied out to right to advance Singer. Freshman Ryan Cline then took the first pitch he saw through the right side for an RBI single.
Aurora and Lutheran South were tied at three heading into the bottom of the sixth.
Erickson induced a groundout and then erased a walk with a double play to face just three Lutheran South hitters in the bottom of the inning and keep the momentum on Aurora’s side. It was the first inning that Lutheran South failed to send more than three batters to the plate.
“He (Erickson) was saying ‘coach I am dealing today’ and he did. He got the job done. For him to come in in this situation and not show any signs of nerves is absolutely huge,” Hoffman said.
Heading to the top of the seventh, Aurora still needed a run to have a chance to win it in the next half. That run came in an unlikely fashion.
Jeremiah Fisher, the ninth hitter in the Aurora lineup, walked to the plate and proceeded to get every bit of the first pitch he saw for a home run to right center and what would prove to be the game-winning run.
“I have probably got the least power on the team. I have never done that before. My first high-school home run. I was so surprised,” Fisher said. “It didn’t feel real. My team was just at home plate ready to greet me and it really hit me.”
The five-foot-nine junior gave Aurora the boost it needed.
“After it (Fisher’s home run) happened everybody knew it was our time,” Miller said. “I am glad he came through. He hit the ball hard this whole week. He was hitting the ball well yesterday and hit the ball hard three or four times today. He hit that home run and everybody just went crazy in our dugout.”
Aurora would scrape across one more run in the seventh after Sparks drew a walk and later scored on a throwing error to give Erickson a two-run cushion entering the bottom of the inning with a state championship on the line.
“His mindset is that it is just another day on the job for him and that is what he proved today,” Shoemaker said.
Erickson got a fly out and a ground out before surrendering a single. Not rattled by having the tying run at the plate, Erickson calmly struck out the final Lutheran South hitter looking to set off the celebration.
“It is enormous. I don’t even have the words to describe it right now. Our fan support (is great). We are four hours away and you have people shutting down their businesses to come watch their hometown team play for a state championship,” Hoffman said.
It was a fitting ending for a senior class that resurrected the Aurora baseball program.
“This group of seniors was the first group I coached at Aurora when I came in for seventh grade basketball. They are extremely special to me, but even more so to the baseball program,” Hoffman said. “They won three games as freshmen. They continued to believe in our coaching staff and what we were trying to do and what we were preaching to them. There has never been any doubt in what they were trying to do and what they believed in. They are a special group of kids.”
Aurora finishes the season at 27-3.
