By Steve Raymond

The Sports Report

Coach Tony Kreke referred to Logan Antrim as the “energy catalyst” for his team.

When the St. Anthony left-hander struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh, everyone attending the game Wednesday afternoon saw that energy when his teammates exploded out of the dugout and surrounded their pitcher.

It was their response to how Antrim, after giving up five runs in the third, buckled down and allowed just one more run over the final four innings.

That gave the Bulldogs the opportunity to come back, erase a one-time three-run deficit and post an 8-7 victory over South Central in a semifinal contest of the National Trail Conference Baseball Tournament.

The No. 3 seeded Bulldogs will now face top-seeded Altamont for the tournament championship at 4 p.m. Friday. The game will be played in Altamont.

 “In that fourth inning, he could have just given up. He did allow some hard-hit balls,” Kreke noted. “But he settled down and got the job done. This team feeds off him and I’m really proud of how he performed today.”

St. Anthony jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but behind home runs from Chase Dodson and Aiden Dodson, the Cougars came back to take a 6-3 advantage.

Antrim responded by setting the next seven South Central batters down in order. And the one additional tally he allowed was an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth.

Then in the bottom of the seventh inning, when the Cougars sent the top three hitters in their lineup to the plate, Antrim responded by fanning all three batters to complete his 106-pitch performance and clinch a spot in the championship game for the Bulldogs.

It was a back-and-forth contest from the beginning.

And the Bulldogs jumped out in front first.

Facing South Central’s ace – hard-throwing Chase Dodson – St. Anthony struck quickly. Antrim led off with a walk and Kennan Walsh followed with a base hit. After the next two batters were retired, Will Hoene delivered a key base hit to right that drove in both runners. Back-to-back singles by Connor Roepke and Eli Levitt produced another run and made it 3-0.

“That first inning was big for us,” Kreke said. “We applied what we’ve been teaching. We had good at-bats and battled. We have a team process index that we talk about a lot. We want to score first, we want to have a big inning and we never stop battling. We saw all that tonight.”

Chase Dodson lined a home run in the bottom of the first to trim the lead to 3-1.

Then in the bottom of the third, the Cougars put together a five-run inning. Sebastian Cowger tied the game with a bases-loaded single and Aiden Dodson followed with a long three-run homer that sailed over the left-centerfield fence to give South Central a 6-3 edge.

“When we fell behind, I told the guys to keep battling,” Kreke said. “I told them if they did, good things were going to happen. I knew we had it in us and the guys were able to get it done.”

And that started in the fourth.

Josh Blanchette led off with a double into the right-centerfield gap and Beau Adams and Walsh walked to load the bases. Colton Fearday then hit a hard ground ball to short that was misplayed. That error allowed two runners to cross the plate and cut the margin to 6-5.

An inning later, Levitt walked and then with two outs, Adams, just a freshman, lined a pitch into right field. The South Central outfielder made a dive, but the ball glanced off his glove and rolled away. Levitt circled the bases and Adams ended up at third base with a game-tying RBI triple.

“We actually had three freshmen in our lineup tonight,” Kreke noted. Part of that was due to starting shortstop Eli Moore not being available because he is in quarantine. He does not have the virus, but had been around someone that did. He will not be available for the championship game either.

“These young kids really came through for us today,” Kreke said. “Beau Adams was in left field, Connor Roepke was at second base and Max Koenig was at third. This experience will really help them down the road in their career.”

The Bulldogs took advantage of some wildness to push across the two runs that put them ahead to stay. With two outs in the top of the sixth, Brody Niebrugge and Hoene received back-to-back walks. Both runners eventually scored after Aiden Dodson, who was pitching in relief, uncorked a series of six wild pitches that allowed both Niebrugge and courtesy runner Brock Jansen to cross the plate.

The Cougars did take advantage of a St. Anthony error to score a run in the bottom of the sixth to make it a one-run game, but Antrim refused to allow any more drama in the seventh. He struck out Chase Thompson, Chase Dodson and Beau Jolliff on 13 pitches to end the game.

“It was nice to see us complete a game,” Kreke said. “I hope we keep what we had tonight against Altamont. We’re excited about being in the championship game.”

The Indians advanced to the finals by posting a 9-6 win over North Clay Wednesday afternoon. It will be the second consecutive year these two teams have met for the conference tournament championship. Last year, the Indians posted a 3-2, eight-inning victory.

This is the eighth consecutive year that St. Anthony has played in the tournament championship contest.