Gone with the Wind: Routt’s small-ball attack helps eliminate Payson Seymour from Class 1A regional

MENDON, Ill. — The Jacksonville Routt baseball team’s death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy paid off in the form of a trip to the Class 1A Mendon Unity Regional championship game.

The No. 2 seed Rockets rattled out 12 hits — 10 of them singles — on a blustery day in Mendon and scored in all but one of the six innings of their 10-0 victory over No. 8 seed Payson Seymour in Wednesday’s regional semifinal. Routt will face third-seeded Brown County in Saturday’s regional title game.

“Obviously, the wind was brutal today, so our game plan was to just sit back and shoot line drives into the gaps and keep the ball out of the air,” said Rockets junior catcher Talon Thompson, who went 2 for 2, reached base four times and scored three runs.

One of Routt’s two extra-base hits proved to be the backbreaking blow for Payson Seymour. After striking out in his first two at-bats, Rockets left fielder and leadoff hitter Jace Lautemann cleared the bases with a triple down the right-field line that stretched Routt’s lead to 8-0 with two outs in the bottom of the third.

“I was pretty upset about those two strikeouts,” Lautemann said. “I don’t normally strike out two times in one game, either. When I hit that ball, I felt very relieved and back into it. You really can’t get down on yourself too much because if you do, you’ll never get out of your slump.”

Routt coach Ryan Turner sensed the Rockets had firmly snatched control of the game at that point.

“That kind of made the dam break,” Turner said. “It gave us the momentum, and I think might have taken them out of the game mentally. You saw a lot of heads drop.”

Payson Seymour coach Brenton Hannel also felt the wind taken out of his team’s sails.

“You have to go up against a team that’s pretty much an all-star team, and if you make a mistake, then you pretty much cut your throat there,” Hannel said.

The Rockets tacked on a run in the fourth, and Anson Butcher’s single in the sixth brought home the 10th run, putting the mercy rule into effect and giving the Rockets their 20th victory.

“Ever since I started coaching, that’s always been my goal, and anything above that is a bonus,” Turner said of the 20-victory plateau. “This one kind of eluded us throughout the regular season. We felt like we left wins out on the table a few times this year, but that’s baseball and that’s learning this game, learning through your losses and getting better. I feel like we’re playing a little better baseball last night.”

While the Rockets’ offense continued its hitting barrage, Rockets starting pitcher Brock Runyon struck out five batters in 4⅔ innings while giving up three hits and walking one.

“He had good life on his fastball today,” Turner said of Runyon. “He didn’t have his sharpest stuff, believe it or not. He can look a little better than that, but he did very well today, and by the end, he was throwing all three pitches for strikes. When he does that, he’s really tough to hit.”

The Indians finished with a 12-15 record after a 1-6 start that included a four-game losing streak.

“I’m proud of our kids in the end,” Hannel said. “We beat a lot of good teams this year. I’m proud of the way they handled themselves this year. It was just a tough way to go out.”

Indians senior shortstop Blake Schwartz went 3 for 3 and had all but one of his team’s hits in his final high school game.

“I struggled hitting last year, and I worked over the summer with Hannel some, and I got it going a little bit,” Schwartz said. “I’m happy to do that, and I wouldn’t want to do it with any other team.”