Unstoppable force
WILLIAMSPORT — With pitcher Emmitt Yost being aggressive and attacking the zone all afternoon, Benton’s offense took the opposite approach in the District 4 Class A baseball championship.
The Tigers worked seven three-ball counts, six going for walks. Yost, meanwhile, got himself into a handful of three-ball counts, but only issued one free pass in their 3-0 win over St. John Neumann.
The victory is the Tigers’ first-ever district title in the sport.
“That is a huge difference. Emmitt did a fantastic job and I couldn’t have asked for anything more out of him,” Benton coach Jim Shires said. “I sent him a message this morning saying ‘you have to be unstoppable today.’ We talked about pounding the zone and he did it. For a sophomore, it’s amazing.
“Our hitters, we told them after scouting [Neumann’s] pitchers Monday night, that they sometimes struggle to find the zone a little bit. We wanted them to take a strike and make him work a little bit. Tonight, it worked in our favor.”
Shires believed that if the team could keep its nerves in check in the first inning, things would fall into place for the Tigers. Fortunately, the plan was executed to perfection in the opening frame.
Yost worked out of some trouble with back-to-back strikeouts after Nazier Smith reached on a fielder’s choice and proceeded to steal second and third with only one away.
The patience then came immediately handy for the Tigers with the first two hitters, Graydon Beishline and Max Steward, working back-to-back walks on 10 combined pitches. Beishline scored the game’s first run when Landon Shires’ drive to left was dropped. Yost then helped his cause, driving in Steward on a fielder’s choice to third.
The Tigers added an insurance run in the third with Steward leading the inning off with a seven-pitch walk. He moved around the bases on a single to right by Connor Kapp, an error by the Golden Knights attempting to get the ball back to pitcher Aidan Vogt and a run-producing single to left by Josh Grassley.
“We had a game plan coming into tonight and the kids executed it to perfection and had some key at-bats,” Shires said. “Even at-bats that didn’t result in hits, they took six, seven, eight pitches and ran up pitch counts, which was huge.”
The Tigers saw 39 pitches from Vogt in the third inning alone, pushing his overall total to 77 — nine less than Yost had in his complete-game shutout — before he was relieved by Kane Wright to start the fourth.
“You don’t have to hit home runs to win baseball games, you just have to get on base,” Yost said. “I think we all understand that very well.”
District gem
The early run support was enough to calm down Yost in the biggest game of his high school career — and it showed.
He retired 15 of his next 16 batters, including 10 straight heading into the seventh inning. He only allowed an infield single to Chase Wright in the third. He had four of his six strikeouts during that span.
“I was just trying to attack the zone and do whatever I could do to help this team,” Yost said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better thing to happen honestly. I’m just so happy the whole team won this game, we all kept our heads in it and that’s the entire factor behind it.”
Give credit where it is due. After all, going the distance does require the backing of his defense. Even the ones that take aren’t your everyday run-of-the-mill plays.
Knights designated hitter Mark Roman looked as if he had a sure hit falling in short left field when Benton shortstop Landon Shires made an on the run, over the shoulder snag to end the top of the fifth.
“That was crazy. I’m watching it and I’m like ‘if he catches this, I don’t know what I’m going to do,’” Yost said. “I was shellshocked and didn’t know what was happening. He came in and I of course gave him a big ole hug because you have to when making that big of a play. He really puts in the work every single day to be able to make plays like that.”
Yost, who admitted nerves settled in some in the seventh, had to work out of a jam before celebrating. Kane Wright reached on a leadoff error and Yost issued a two-out walk to Naseer Dymeck, prompting a mound visit from Jim Shires.
“I told him to trust his stuff and keep going with it because the defense has his back,” Shires said. “The mound visit was really there to calm everybody down but to get Emmitt to trust his stuff. When he trusts his stuff and throws strikes, we’ll be OK. That’s exactly what happened.”
Four pitches later, Yost got Matt Harbach to fly out to left. Benton players all threw their hats and gloves up in celebration and ran to one player in particular along the first baseline to start celebrating the program’s first-ever district title — Yost.
“It’s unbelievable. It doesn’t feel real yet. I don’t even have words,” Yost said. “You always want to win for your team, especially in this big of a situation. To complete it and make this team and community all proud is the best feeling in the world.”
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