All good things must come to an end, even if it’s a little earlier than Monticello’s baseball team had hoped.
“Would we have wanted a different outcome? Absolutely,” said Monticello coach Corey Hunt. “But I know they gave everything. It’s not a question of did we do what we needed to do, did we try what we wanted to do. It didn’t work out for us tonight … disappointed, yes, but not upset. Very proud.”
The Mustangs, who went from the No. 3 seed in Conference 29 all the way to a region title and a state semifinal berth, fell Friday evening in the Group 3A semifinals to Region 3A East runner-up Lafayette 11-0, ending a thrilling and improbable playoff run by a team that overcame a number of obstacles this season with timely rallies and incredible pitching performances.
Friday the rally never came, as Lafayette took a 1-0 lead in the first and eventually blew the game open with a six-run fifth that put the Rams up 10-0.
“We helped them out a little bit…but all-in-all they were a good team,” said Monticello senior Jonathan Heuchert. “They hit the ball and came up clutch when they needed to and we didn’t. That was the story.”
Lafayette’s lineup got going early, scoring in the first inning after a leadoff single from Matt Keane. Keane, Jered Antle and Braydon Venus each finished with two RBIs. The Rams were also patient at the plate, drawing 10 walks on the day. Several of those walks came in the fifth inning when they blew the game open.
Monticello got off to a good start when starting pitcher Parker Heinemann minimized the damage from a first inning jam by surrendering just one run. Then in his leadoff at bat, Robbie Deane worked the count and eventually singled to give Monticello the potential to tie it up in the bottom of the first. But the Mustangs stranded Deane and another runner in that half inning.
Jack Decker and Kyle Jarrell managed to catch up to Lafayette pitcher Daniel Blankinship twice each, but they were the lone Mustangs who managed to get a bead on him, and Blankinship refused to give up any walks either while striking out seven. Blankinship was efficient throughout and only needed 90 pitches to navigate seven innings.
Decker was the target of a particularly tough call for the Mustangs in the third. The Mustangs had just gone down 4-0 when Decker uncorked a double to right centerfield potentially starting a rally with just one out on the board. After the play was over though, Lafayette threw to first base with Decker standing on second and the first base umpire called him out for not touching the bag.
“Jack, he’s a great player and he’s one of my best friends on this team,” Deane said. “We’ve come a long way together and it’s been fun with all these seniors.”
The loss marked the end of the line for a group of seniors that have been a part of several strong teams at Monticello.
“It’s been a fun run, we’ve had a lot of success since the postseason started,” Deane said. “We’ve been playing together and we’ve really grown together. We’re disappointed but we’re not upset because we made it to this point and we’re proud to be here today.”
Monticello lost its top pitcher Luke Cieslewicz back in April and then No. 3 hitter Jon Page when he left to go to boot camp after the conference tournament. But each time the Mustangs hit a bump in the road, they overcame it.
“They don’t have anything to hang their heads about it,” Hunt said. “They just deserved to be in this position.”
