Two big swings of the bat vaulted Omaha Gross to a River Cities Conference championship in an 11-5 win over Skutt on Friday, April 28.
The Cougars fell behind early, as starter Alex Kosse was hit hard by the Skyhawks, who put up four runs on a pair of two-run hits by Brady Rempel and Maccoy Holtam. But the Cougars backed him up with two runs in the bottom of the first to cut the deficit in half on an RBI single by Gabe Hardisty and another on a throw down to second.
Kosse settled in, and up stepped Gross senior and Creighton commit Connor Capece, who saw a “beach ball” come over the plate.
“I know I missed my first one on my first at bat. I showed up and I needed confidence. I needed something I could see. And it came down the middle, looked like a beach ball, and I hammered it. I swung with all I got and connected,” Capece said.
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The home run not only tied the game but provided the Cougars with the momentum, which Capece said was huge and brought the home crowd into the game. Head coach Jim Hempel said it got them going.
“You could just feel the momentum swing over here at that point. And then we just kind of rode it from there on out. I mean, he’s the best player in the state. And I mean, the guy comes up in big moments and competes his butt off for us. And, he just, he’s that guy. And so for us it’s not a surprise for him to do that for us.”
The Cougars took the lead in the bottom of the third when Hardisty exemplified excellent baserunning, taking off for home while a teammate was caught in a pickle between first and second, evading the tag of Skutt’s catcher.
Up 5-4, the Cougars did briefly lose the lead when Skutt tied the game on an RBI single by Holtam in the top of the fifth.
But once again, Hardisty made a key play by driving in Capece with a sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning to reestablish the Gross lead.
Then, after Colby Duncan drew a walk, Owen Brennan and Brayden Herring laid down pinpoint bunts and each reached first to load the bases (Brennan reaching on an error).
Up stepped pinch-hitter Casey Braun with a huge opportunity, who was “ready from the get-go.”
“I’m thinking they had a mound visit before I went to bat,” he said. “I’m sitting fastball because he hasn’t found the zone. First-pitch fastball, I’m sitting, hitting it the other way, it was outside. I was ready for that pitch.”
Braun smoked a fly ball to deep left-center field, clearing the bases and turning a one-run lead to four with three outs to go.
“Casey’s had some big at-bats for us this last week, and we were just trying to pick the right moment to use him because he’s been squaring up baseballs here, and boy, he delivered there, you know, broke the game wide open,” Hempel said.
Carson Almgren, who had hit the ball hard in his previous two at-bats, finally found a hole with a two-run single to provide some insurance.
Jack Miller finished off two innings of one-hit ball to shut the door in an 11-5 win to win the conference for the Cougars.
“Jack’s been doing that all year. He comes in in big moments and is able to (finish), he just attacks,” Hempel said.
The Omaha Gross head coach was also proud of Kosse for never wavering after the first inning and stepping up against Skutt recently (Gross also won 10-7 last Friday).
“We joked about it last week when I told him he’s gonna get the start against Skutt, he’s like, ‘Coach, I’ve thrown against Skutt a lot in my career.’ He’s a three year varsity guy. He goes, ‘And I don’t know if I’ve beat them yet.’ And he held that outing last week where he was in command and scattered hits and but we’re using command. Tonight he got punched in the mouth in the first inning, but he didn’t really waver. I mean, he just kept, kept his composure and kept out there battling.”
With clutch at-bats and the team stepping up consistently in big games against big opponents, the Cougars now need to guard against let downs, which they talked about after the conference final.
“That’s the conversation we just had here in the huddle, we got to come back tomorrow at noon and play Ralston, and as good as this feels, we can’t come out (and) let down tomorrow, and that will be a learning step.”
Earlier Friday, Gross defeated Mt. Michael Bendictine 6-5 to advance in the RCC tournament.
Om. Skutt (9-8) .... 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 — 5 9 2
Om. Gross (12-5) .. 1 0 3 0 1 5 x — 11 9 1
Against Ralston on Saturday, it was anything but a let down, as the Cougars crushed the Rams pitching in a 17-6 win to improve to 13-5, once again erasing an early deficit (3-0 after one).