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Beiter, Griffons walk-off on the Outlaws
Niles was nails, Beiter came up big, and the Griffons got their first Gatorade shower of the season.
That was the story, in short, Tuesday night at Lyons Stadium, where Nevada’s summer collegiate baseball team evened its early-season record to .500 with a thrilling 4-3 walk-off victory over the first-place Joplin Outlaws.
“It’s a lot of fun playing with these guys. We’ve got a bunch of good guys on our team, good teammates,” said second baseman Chase Beiter, the Missouri Southern State University product who slapped a 3-1 fastball into left field with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning to win it, and was rewarded by his fellow Griffons with a celebratory dog-pile and soaking from the water cooler. “I got ahead early, got to 3-1. Bases loaded, there’s nowhere to go. I knew he had to throw a fastball, and it was just middle-cut, right inside, and I put a good swing on it.”
It wasn’t Beiter’s only highlight hack of the night.
Two innings earlier, with his team down a run, Beiter — who struck out in his first three at-bats to start the contest — tied the game at 3-3 with a two-out double that scored Tyler Davis. This after Nevada rode a comfortable 2-0 lead behind an RBI single by Chase St. Amand, a two-out RBI double off the bat of Jesse Fonteboa, and five no-hit innings from starting pitcher Dustin Niles.
A three-run sixth inning by the Outlaws was the only blemish on the day for Niles, who struck out five batters in seven innings of work before Folsom Lake Community College teammate Sebastian Kirchner came on in relief and K'd four of his own.
It could have been more than three runs in the sixth if not for an outstanding defensive play by the Griffons to end the inning (a situation that would come up again in the ninth).
After a two-out single prompted a mound visit from assistant coach Brian Daly, Niles induced a fly ball to Davis in right field. The runner at first had advanced to second on a passed ball, and now was tagging up to try and make it to third. But Davis fired a laser to third baseman Cameron Saso, who applied the tag in time to end the threat.
Following Beiter's game-tying extra-base hit in the seventh, and Kirchner striking out the side in the eighth, Nevada had a chance to go ahead in the bottom of the frame when Alec Telles reached on an error and pinch-runner Joshua Campuzano stole second. But St. Amand struck out swinging on a breaking ball, stranding the runner in scoring position.
The letdown was fresh in St. Amand’s mind while the catcher was behind the plate in the top of the ninth when Kirchner retired the first two batters, then plunked the next two. When the runners tried to advance on a passed ball, St. Amand picked it up and threw wide to second base. Shortstop Jake Federico was able to get a glove on the ball, then returned it home when the runner at third took a wide turn to try and score. St. Amand secured it, though, and caught him in a rundown.
“In my head, running down, I just had to get this out, because I failed to do my part at the plate that previous half-inning. Just had to get my boys in there, keep them swinging,” said St. Amand, who chased the runner all the way back to third base and dove with him to apply the tag and send the game into the bottom of the ninth. “I was taking it the entire way. I knew that kid was not making it back. I had to have it in my hands.”
Davis drew a full count to lead off the ninth, eventually diving head-first to leg out an infield single — before Bryland Skinner and Saso loaded the bases with back-to-back bunt singles.
“We made a huge defensive play, getting him in that rundown there at the end, and then just good approaches at the plate. We put pressure on them, did a little small ball, executed it to perfection, got guys on, got them in scoring position,” said Daly, who watched from the third-base coaches box as Beiter delivered the team’s third win by smoking a line drive past Joplin's diving third baseman to score Davis. “Chase comes up big twice. Gets a hit to tie the game early on, then comes up, right guy, right spot, gets the game-winner. So, everything kind of fell into line for us there at the end.”
Nevada head coach Jason Jacome, who pitched in the Major Leagues and Japan, kept his cool the entire game, even when his team surrendered its two-run lead, when Beiter tied it up in the seventh, and when the defense made impressive play after impressive play — but he admitted the adrenaline was pumping after the walk-off.
Not that he wasn’t expecting it to.
“That was definitely exciting. Most of my career, I pitched the same way. Just let things happen, knowing that we’re going to have a chance to come back and win. Anytime you’re playing at home, you always got that chance to come back,” Jacome said. “These guys wanted to win. They’re out there putting the bat on the ball. The execution is the main thing. That’s what won us the game in the end, was two perfect bunts. You can’t ask for anything more but to execute and do the job.”
According to Beiter, coming away with another W was a piece of cake.
“Our pitchers are throwing a lot of strikes. They’re going deep in ballgames. And our hitters just keep putting up runs. Honestly, it’s pretty easy to win ballgames like that,” he said.