Kendall falls to Pavilion in semi's

Kendall falls to Pavilion in semi's

Pavilion strung together three walks, a hit batsman and four hits to score six runs in the third in a 10-2 victory over Kendall in the Class C baseball semi-finals. The Eagles were in the semi's for the first time since advancing to the state tournament in 1999.

After the Golden Gophers took a 1-0 lead in the second, the Eagles tied the game in their half of the inning when Scott Batty doubled to right followed by Devin Schaefer's RBI triple high off the right field fence just inside the foul pole.

Then came the Pavilion third when they sent eleven men to the plate and scored six runs. The Golden Gophers scored a pair of unearned runs in the fifth and added another without benefit of a hit in the seventh.

Kendall scored their only other run of the game in the fifth inning. With two outs, Zach Romano walked and went to third on a single to center by catcher Cody Trimm. Romano came in to score on a fielder's choice RBI by Mike Sheffield when the Pavilion shortstop tried to tag Trimm off of second instead of throwing to first.

Mike Hackett pitched a complete game for Pavilion allowing seven hits and striking out six. Junior John Steadman started for Kendall and suffered the loss allowing seven runs in two and two-thirds innings while walking six. Sophomore right-hander Mark Driesel came on in relief and threw four and a third innings allowing just three hits while striking out six batters.

"We're pleased to be seeded third and excited that we got this far into the season, but we're disappointed with the final result," said Kendall head coach Dan Peckham. "We made a few errors and didn't hit the ball as well as we could, but that's baseball. I might have stayed a little longer than I should, but I wanted to give the kids a chance to work out of it."

"This was a good group of kids and they worked hard - they're disappointed," Peckham said.

Kendall completed the season with a 12-5 record. Seniors Batty, Corey Gaesser, Brad Schaefer, Devin Schaefer, Tyler Shultz, Mike Sheffield, Tim Steadman and Cody Trimm all suited up for their final high school game.