Lake George baseball punches ticket to Class C quarterfinals
LAKE GEORGE — It took 10 innings, but the Lake George High School baseball team held on to advance into the Class C quarterfinals – beating Maple Hill 4 to 3 – on Tuesday afternoon.
With one out and senior teammate Kalab Helms in scoring position at second base in the bottom of the tenth inning, Lake George junior Jack Kelleher punched the warriors’ ticket to the quarterfinals in walk-off fashion at the hands of a “tough” error on the part of Maple Hill first basemen Quinn Pratico.
“I was just looking for a good ball to hit,” said Kelleher. “It had a good top spin and took a weird hop in front of the first baseman.”
The game which lasted two hours and 13 minutes did not feature any runs after the fourth inning.
“It was the longest game I’ve ever been apart of,” said Helms. “I thought we were gonna put some runs on ’em early and I felt pretty confident in our team but I didn’t think it would take that long.”
After a scoreless first inning, Lake George junior Tony Abrantes platted Shane McCabe to put the Warriors up 1-0.
In the bottom of the third inning, Shane McCabe would add to the Warrior’s lead with an RBI (2) single of his own, scoring the eventual winning duo of Helms and Kelleher.
With his team’s season on the line, Maple Hill junior Dylan Chesnut sparked the Wildcats’ offense with a line drive RBI single, scoring Alec Yager. Two batters later, junior Connor Hall platted friends Nick Butler and Tyler Hanrahan off an RBI (2) single, which brought with it the game’s greatest play. Hanrahan, who scored the tying run, jumped and flipped over the catcher to make it home safe.
Pics or it didn’t happen? @TylerHanrahan42 scores by “Greg Louganing” into home #518Baseball pic.twitter.com/lufudSNhMz
— Dylan Rossiter (@ByDylanRossiter) May 17, 2017
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“I don’t know if it was Greg Louganis doing a high dive but it was pretty funny,” said Maple Hill head coach Rico Frese.
In the win, Lake George’s Tony Abrantes pitched 3.1 innings of work, allowing two hits and three runs (none earned) and walked and struck out two batters. Kalab Helms pitched the remaining 6.2 innings and allowed seven hits and zero runs while walking none and striking out four.
Alec yager went 125 pitches in 8.2 innings. The junior ace allowed five hits and three runs (one earned) while walking three and striking out twelve.
No. 4 lake George advances to face No.5 Granville on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. The last time the two teams met earlier this season, it was lake George who came away victorious all be it in walk-off fashion.
-Dylan Rossiter – @ByDylanRossiter – [email protected]
