With momentum on its side, a lightning delay in the bottom of the fourth inning seemed like an unlucky break for the William Monroe baseball team who has had some lousy playoff luck with the weather not too far back. But with continued patience at the plate, the Dragons were able to resume the contest and quickly recapture their energy, making the most of its homefield advantage to try and make their path to a state title just a little bit easier.
With a 2-run single from Parker Hildebrand and a 2-run triple from Talan Shifflett the Dragons were able to take what was a good lead and break things wide open. And with Waylon Cheek’s strong start — aided by a pair of big double plays — to go along with 2-plus strong innings of relief from Jayden Kirby, Monroe was able to cruise to a 9-3 win over Meridian in the Region 3C semifinals to clinch a Class 3A state berth.
“It was tough because we came out and got that lead and then you’ve got to wait through weather to get to hit with the bases loaded with two outs,” said Dragons coach Mike Maynard. “We got the two big hits though. Two big hits from two younger guys. Both great at-bats where they battled, did what they needed to with the ball.”
It was a quiet game until the bottom of the third inning when Waylon Anderegg led things off with a double down the chalk of the first base line. After Kaleb Doshier was hit by a pitch, a wild pitch put both runners in scoring position. Meridian pitcher Alex Gorman induced a pair of short pop flies to center that did not allow the Dragons to tag up. But a passed ball allowed Anderegg to score and then a balk brought Doshier home to make it 2-0.
Then the Dragons loaded the bases with Lance Williams getting a single, Jayden Kirby getting hit by a pitch and Hildebrand also getting a single. Talan Shifflett was able to slap an RBI single to center but the Mustangs came up with the play at the plate to end the inning.
Through four innings pitched, Cheek needed just 49 pitches thanks in large part to a pair of double plays from his defense, the first in the second on a botched bunt and then the second on a line drive to second in the fourth. Cheek did not give up a hit until the fourth.
“I felt bad for Waylon because he was pitching really well and then you get the delay, that’s tough on a pitcher and we saw what they went through with that,” Maynard said. “He battled for us in a big spot where we were down a few pitchers. The defense, the double plays, that’s just baseball because that’s a team with a lot of seniors that we’ve battled for years. They hit some hard shots and we caught them. The baseball Gods must have been on our side there a bit. But the bunt execution, that was great defense and I was proud of the guys on that one.”
Monroe showed patience at the plate in the fourth and was able to get a bases loaded hit batter to score Nick Morris before an hour-plus lightning delay kicked in. Out of the delay, the Dragons got another bases loaded walk to score Jamal Neal. Hildebrand followed with a 2-run single.
“I just thought about choking up and put the knob to the ball and put in play,” Hildebrand said.
That set the table for Talan Shifflett’s 2-run triple that he cranked to right to make it 9-0 and get the Dragons dugout and the crowd that hung through the weather as fired up as it got all night.
“I kind of thought (I was going to get) an outside pitch,” Shifflett said. “I got one and I just put it over there (the opposite way).”
In the top of the fifth Meridian was able to break up the shutout when Troy Elrich hit an RBI single only to later score on a wild pitch. Then Jack Flanagan was able to deliver an RBI single to chase Cheek and bring in Kirby on in relief who ended the inning with a strikeout and kept things at 9-3, but that was as close as they’d get.
Kirby had little trouble wrapping up the next two innings on the mound as he struck out the side in the sixth and then picked up his fifth strikeout of the night on the final out to wrap up the win.
“Jayden came in and was just phenomenal for us,” Maynard said. “I knew he was good for a couple of innings tonight and tried to wait as late as possible to go to him. He came through.”
For Monroe baseball historians, a weather demon was exercised from 2017 when the Dragons weren’t allowed to finish their game with Warren County and fell 3-1 in the sixth inning with runners on second and third and just one out. With that out of the way, the Dragons now await their Class 3A quarterfinal opponent and will play at home on Tuesday as it looks to bring home its first state title since the 2012 season. Monroe last played a state playoff game in Stanardsville in 2013 when it fell in the quarterfinals to Nandua. The Dragons are hoping they have that 10-year luck and not the 9-year kind.
“We finally get to play at home in this tournament, it’s been a long time,” Maynard said. “We get to play big time baseball in front of these mountains. We’ll knock on wood and hope that we do what we did that one time and see what happens.”
