If there is one thing that the Chiefland baseball team has struggled with this season, it has been getting the clutch or timely hit.
On Tuesday night in the FHSAA Rural District 7 semifinals at Levy County rival Williston, the No. 3 seed Indians got plenty of them in a 7-3 win against the No. 2 seed Red Devils.
For the second consecutive year, the Indians are headed to the district title game. They will play at top-seed Trenton at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
“It feels great,” said Chiefland coach Chad Brock. “The program has been pretty consistent. It’s the second year in a row we got a chance to play for a district title. That’s exciting. It says a lot about our group of guys. They’ve been in the program for a few years now and bought in and just want to make the best of their senior season with all of those seniors (10) I’ve got. Hats off to them.”
One of those seniors was shortstop Trey Meeks (2-for-4, HR, 3 RBI, 2 runs), who drilled a Jacob Loock pitch over the wall in right-center field for a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Loock (one-third inning pitched, 3 runs, 2 walks, 1 hit by pitcher) left the game one batter later.
“It was great,” said Meeks, who hit a grand slam in a 12-1 win against No. 6 seed Bronson in the district quarterfinals on Monday night. “I think it really set the tone for the game. It was an up-and-away fastball, I was sitting on it. It’s the best feeling ever. Everybody knows that.”
In a 7-6 loss in eight innings at Williston on March 28, the host Red Devils built an early 6-0 lead but this time the Indians started fast.
“I think the quick start was great offensively,” Brock said. “We haven’t done that a whole lot. Their pitcher struggled a little bit in the beginning, maybe some nerves, but then Trey comes up with the big hit for us there to capitalize and give us some early runs. The quick start kind of went away, but it turned into a battle and that’s exactly what we thought we would be in is a dog fight and it was the last time we played them.”
Williston (13-11) answered with three runs in the bottom of the first inning off of Chiefland senior pitcher Taylor Brown (7 IP, 3R, 0 earned runs, 3 hits, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts).
Brown hit senior Breeden Clemenzi to start the inning, followed by a bunt single by senior Elliot Davis, and Loock was hit by a pitch.
A sacrifice fly by senior Waylon Geiger made it 3-1 and sophomore Braige Schneider and Daxton Weston each reached on a fielder’s choice and drove in a run to tie the game at 3-3.
“Resilient group,” said first-year Williston coach Denver Ripley. “Ten seniors that we’ll miss dearly…they’re trained to not quit, and they never quit. They kept playing the game hard.”
Chiefland (13-9) got what would prove to be the game-winning run in the third inning.
Meeks led off the inning with a double to left field and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly to short left field by senior Garrett Byrd for a 4-3 lead.
Senior JR Hudson tripled to start the top of the fourth inning and a squeeze bunt by senior Colton Brown extended it to a 5-3 lead.
The Indians scored their final two runs on an error and an RBI single by senior Luke Watkins.
