By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – On the first pitch of his final plate appearance, Kline Woodward missed a chance to drop down a bunt and advance his teammate into scoring position. On the last pitch, Woodward didn’t miss.
Scorching a 3-2 fastball into right field, Woodward smashed a line-drive single to chase home Trace Rynders with the walk-off winning run as Bedford North Lawrence conquered Bloomington North 5-4 in a thriller on Tuesday night.
After Rynders led off the bottom of the seventh with a sharp single to left, BNL coach Jeff Callahan flashed the bunt sign to the third man in his lineup. That spot is usually reserved for the best hitter, and Woodward has been just that. However, the circumstances demanded getting the runner into scoring position. Woodward attempted to follow orders, and failed, fouling off the bunt.
Two pitches later, Rynders stole second. That set the stage for Woodward to do what he does best – swing hard, hit it hard. He sent that missile into the outfield, and Rynders raced around third and dove head first across home plate with the winning run, setting off the celebration as the Stars circled and engulfed Woodward in jubilation.
“I just thinking I have to hit the ball hard,” said Woodward, who had been hitless until the ultimate moment. “No matter what I did, I had to get Trace over.”
“My dad (John) was probably like ‘What are you bunting Woodward for?’” Callahan said with a laugh. “He came up in a big way. He’s been our best hitter all year, and he showed it again.”
The heroic ending glossed over some rough moments. After smoothness during the first two innings, the Stars committed four errors during the next four, while pitchers Walker Ward and Isaac Daria were in more trouble than juvenile delinquents. North had the bases loaded in the third and fourth innings, left eight runners on over those four frames, and only two sparkling defensive plays by BNL kept the damage to a minimum.
“It’s better to win ugly than lose pretty,” Callahan said. “You can say that’s how we won that game.
“They might as well have put three balls up there (on the scoreboard) when the batter came up. But they worked out of some tough situations. They had traffic all over the place. In the end, they got big outs when we needed them.”
BNL scored twice in the first. Two walks and an error loaded the bases, Ryker Hughes lofted a sacrifice fly to right for the first RBI, and Ward grounded out to plate the second. The Cougars (6-10) scored in the third, set up by a BNL throwing error on a bunt, and loaded the bases with one out. But after going 3-0 on back-to-back batters, Ward fanned both to escape.
The Stars took a 4-1 lead in the third. With two outs, Cade Mungle cracked a RBI double to right, and Cam Gates scored on a wild pitch.
North countered with two runs in the fourth. Joe Burton stroked a RBI infield single, and Will Eads followed with a RBI liner to center. Jake Mayer’s infield single to shortstop loaded the bases, but Daria got Caden McCoy to ground sharply to Mungle at first. Mungle fired a strike to Gates at home for the force, and Gates returned the throw to first to complete a huge double play.
The Cougars took advantage of the last BNL error to pull even at 4-4 in the sixth, setting up the grand finale.
BNL had only five hits. Daria earned the win, working the final 3 2/3 innings in relief. He got some defensive help from Tyler Stigall, who made a jumping snag of a line drive at second base to save a run in the fifth, and he recorded the final out of that frame with a tough catch of a foul ball down the right-field line.
The Stars had to juggle their lineup with normal lead-off man Cal Gates sidelined by an elbow injury and Carter Bennett nursing a sore shoulder.
“We had two starters out, and we just have to see what we can do,” Callahan said.
The Stars (11-6) will visit Columbus North on Thursday.
