By Jared Pendak
Burlington
The Royals rallied after surrendering a three-run lead, reliever Justin Brock was forced into the game because of a pitch limit to starter Josh Scoskie and catcher Robert Ingram made a diving catch for the final out as the Royals edged the Indians, 4-3, at the University of Vermont’s Centennial Field.
It’s the second Vermont Division IV championship in four years for South Royalton (No. 2; 16-2), which also beat Danville in the final three years ago. The No. 8 Indians (8-12) — who played all but two games against D-III and D-II opponents in the regular season — fell to 0-4 all-time against the Royals in finals.
Dalton McDougall had RBIs in the first and third innings, and South Royalton went up 3-0 when senior courtesy runner Kyle Spaulding beat the throw home on a close play in the fourth.
Curveballer Scoskie (6 innings; five hits, three earned runs, four walks, nine strikeouts) allowed one runner in each of the first four innings, but settled in to finish the innings scoreless each time. That changed with two outs in the fifth, when Danville rallied to tie it.
The Indians loaded the bases on a walk, single and hit batsman before DH Andrew Smith’s two-run single scored lead-off hitter Tyler Wells and pitcher Coleton Loura-Bumps. Smith reached second on the throw home and scored on a base hit into center field by Connor Johnson before Scoskie got catcher Taylor Call looking at a third strike.
“I wanted to leave him in because he got us this far and he wanted to stay in,” South Royalton coach Mike Ballou said of Scoskie, a sophomore who finished the year 8-0. “When I went out there to talk to him (during Danville’s rally), I looked him in the eye and I knew that I believed in him. His teammates believed in him, too. No one was hanging their heads. They wanted him to finish.”
South Royalton got the lead right back in the bottom of the fifth, taking advantage of the Indians’ only error with the help of aggressive base running.
Danville shortstop Tyler Wells threw in the dirt in front of first baseman Matthew Hauserman, allowing the Royals’ Stephen Paige to reach with one out. He stole both second and third base before sophomore Dominick Small plunked a single to shallow left to drive in what stood as the winning run.
South Royalton finished 5-for-5 on steal attempts for the night and advanced on both a passed ball and wild pitch.
“We knew to keep our heads up after they tied it,” said McDougall, who had the game’s lone extra-base hit when he doubled to score Nicholas Howe (lead-off single) in the third. “We’ve had bad stretches before this season and we just keep battling. We put a lot of balls in play, forced mistakes and use our speed to steal a lot of bases.”
Scoskie stayed in for the sixth, making Ballou appear wise when he retired the side in order in 14 pitches.
“My curveball wasn’t working as well as I would have liked, just not hitting my spots,” said Scoskie. “I went to the fast ball and was able to start hitting the corners to get out of innings.”
The Royals stranded a would-be insurance run in the home half, and Scoskie walked Wells to lead off the seventh — the third time he allowed a leadoff man to reach.
He responded by inducing a pair of pop-ups that shortstop Paige adroitly caught in shallow right.
“Those plays aren’t easy to make under the lights, especially when you’re not used to it,” Ballou said. “Those were two big outs.”
The second came on Scoskie’s 120th pitch, sending him out of the game because of the VPA’s pitch-count limit.
Ballou called on reliever Justin Brock to face Smith, the DH who’d driven in a pair for Danville in his previous at-bat.
“I’d been warming up, but I had no idea what Josh’s pitch count was or if I’d be going in,” Brock said. “I was a little nervous, having to get the third out.”
Catcher Ingham erased those concerns two pitches into Smith’s at-bat, going airborne for a dramatic, diving catch to clinch the championship for South Royalton.
“It looked like it was coming down in slow motion, and I just thought, ‘If I dive, I have a chance,’ ” Ingham said. “I actually had no idea if I’d caught it when I hit the ground. I just looked in my glove and it was there.”
South Royalton prevailed in a rare close game — the Royals had outscored opponents 68-9 in their previous four, including mercy-rule wins in the quarterfinals and semis.
“We thought we’d get more hits and score more runs today, but (Loura-Bumpss) is a good pitcher and Danville is a good team,” Ballou said. “But our guys did what they had to do, like they have all year. Everyone on the team had a hand in this win.”
Extra Bases: Mike Ballou pitched both of South Royalton’s first two finals wins against Danville, 15-1 in 1981 and 8-1 in ’82. His son, David, was a member of the 2013 championship squad that beat the Indians. … Jacob Hewitt had a two-out single in the seventh, just the Royals fourth hit against Loura-Bumps (six strikeouts, two walks, hit batsman). … The Royals lose Kyle Spaulding, Max Stearns and Robert Ingham to graduation.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.