One for the road: Cougars beat Mustangs for regional title, send seniors on class trip in style

LIBERTY, Ill. — A freshman pitcher’s poise and presence is going to allow the seniors on the Winchester West Central baseball team to thoroughly enjoy the road trip that lies ahead.

It should enable Grant DeWitt to have a more casual drive, too.

Right-hander Anthony Hance wriggled out of a sixth-inning with a five-run lead still intact and finished off Mendon Unity by retired the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 hitters in the Mustangs’ lineup in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday, adding the exclamation point to an 8-3 victory in the championship game of the Class 1A Liberty Regional.

“It’s a pretty big deal, honestly,” Hance said. “As a freshman, you’re coming in here a little nervous, but just get on that mound and do what you normally do. The nerves went away.”

So did any trepidation about a nine-hour drive.

The West Central senior class trip to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., began at 6 a.m. Saturday with a caravan leaving Winchester. Since the regional title game was scheduled for 11 a.m. and at least one senior girl was competing at the Class 1A state track and field championship, a handful of seniors were left behind.

DeWitt, the Cougars’ head baseball coach, agreed to drive the group to Pigeon Forge as soon as everything wrapped up and everyone got cleaned up.

“My wife is going to ride with us to give me someone to talk to,” DeWitt said with a chuckle. “Athletics is so big in our school community, and you hate for kids to miss out on a senior trip with their classmates because we’re still playing baseball.

“They’re going to miss practice Monday and Tuesday — they get back Tuesday — but they’re gamers. They will be fine. They’ll show up ready to go.”

The Cougars will be put to the test, too. Winchester West Central (18-7) will face Delavan (17-7-1) at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the semifinals of the Mendon Unity Sectional. Jacksonville Routt (29-7) and Illini Bluffs (15-6) will meet in the other semifinal.

Meanwhile, the Mustangs (19-6) missed out on a chance to play in the sectional they will host and the opportunity to end a three-decade regional drought.

Cody Shaffer and Sawyer Allen — Unity’s power-pitching right-handers — combine to strike out 11, but they allowed nine walks and hit three batters. Two of West Central’s first three runs were scored by players who reached via a free base.

“It’s disappointing we didn’t play our best,” Unity catcher Simon Rabe said.

Still, the Mustangs gave themselves a chance.

After the Cougars scored once in the top of the first inning, the Mustangs tied it in the fourth when Shaffer reached on an error, stole second, went to third on another error and scored on a groundout.

West Central regained the lead in the fifth with a run after Cameron Sievers led off with a triple and scored on Carson Brown’s single. In the sixth, Allen relieved Shaffer on the mound and was greeted by the Cougars loading the bases with one out. Dalton Hutton followed with a two-run double to right double. Landyn Woods added a two-run single as West Central scored six runs in the inning.

“I was calm, collected after that,” Hance said. “That’s great for a pitcher when your offense does that.”

Unity plated two runs in the bottom of the sixth on a single by Allen and a bases-loaded, one-out walk to Carter Reeves, but Hance left the bases loaded by getting a lineout to first base and a groundout to third base.

Hance struck out three, walked three and allowed just five hits while throwing 107 pitches in the complete-game effort.

“He came in and he’s been thrown to the fire,” DeWitt said. “He’s a great ballplayer. We had a couple setbacks with him and we had a couple good talks, and his last couple of outings have just been unreal. His mound presence is big. He never got rattled out there today. He commanded the zone.”

He never flinched facing the meat of Unity’s lineup in the seventh.

“I wasn’t sure what to do going into the seventh,” DeWitt said. “But our senior, four-year starter starter behind the plate Mason Berry said, ‘He’s good. Let him go.’ So I said to Hance, ‘You’re going out for the seventh. Go win the ballgame for us.’”