Forbes leads Athens past Mansfield for NTL title.
By: Chris Manning | Towanda Daily Review | May 15, 2014 | Photo courtesy Chris Manning
2014 NTL and District 4 News
ATHENS - After six innings first year Athens coach Brendan Hitchcock went to his starter Tyler Forbes and asked him if he was good to go in the final inning.
It was hot and Forbes was over 100 pitches at that point.
But the Junior wasn't going anywhere.
He finished the game, striking out the final two Mansfield batters with the tying and go ahead runs on base and the Wildcats defeated Mansfield 2-1 to clinch the NTL Large School baseball title Wednesday.
A loss to the Tigers would have put them, Mansfield and Towanda into a three way tie.
At the start of the season Hitchcock envisioned a time when Forbes would be able to be effective for a complete game.
"Tyler and I, all year long, I said 'we're going to get you to the point where when you take the ball and it's your game," explained Hitchcock. "Before the game I said the same thing. This is your ball game."
The second half of the game became a grind for both pitchers.
"I just wanted to keep my head in the game," said Forbes. "Throw strikes, do my job."
Despite wanting to give his ace a long leash, the coach was still watching him closely.
"We were keeping track of his pitch count," said Hitchcock. "Making sure he felt OK but he came off the mound in the sixth inning and said it's my ballgame. I wasn't going to take it from him. He did an outstanding job, basically putting us on his shoulders through the back half there on the mound, which is fantastic."
After the gutsy finish the Junior was looking for his next challenge.
"I'm ready for districts," he said.
Forbes allowed just two hits and one unearned run while striking out eight and issuing six walks.
It was a pitchers' duel throughout as Jarrod Burd went six innings for the Tigers, allowing four hits, four walks, two runs, one of which was earned with two strikeouts.
Athens struck first. In the bottom of the first Dan Fisher reached on an error followed by Troy Stivason bringing him home on a double to put the Wildcats up 1-0.
They kept that offense going in the second inning as Luke Newman reached on a walk. He would reach second as Ben Rubert reached first on an error with one out.
Fisher laid down a bunt and reached first to load the bases. That was followed by Nick Vosburg driving Newman in on a fielder's choice to put Athens up 2-0.
"It felt pretty special to score in the NTL title game as a freshman," Newman remarked.
"It's obviously huge," said Hitchcock about getting the lead. "I think it set the tone, to have a home game on a night like this in what we had at stake. To jump out a little early and have a little bit of room kind of took the jitters away from some guys."
However, the well dried up after that for the Wildcats. They got runners in scoring position in the third and fifth innings but weren't able to bring them around.
"I was hoping we would get more breathing room than that," remarked Hitchcock.
For Mansfield they started the game with runners on first and second with no outs but Forbes got out of the inning by getting Burd to fly out followed by back to back strikeouts.
After going down in order in the second and third Burd reached on a single to start the fourth.
Burd then reached third on an error off the bat of Rylan Whitmyer to put runners on the corners with no outs. Whitmyer stole second to put the tying run on second.
With one out J.P. Shaw hit a sacrifice fly to center field that drove in Burd to cut the deficit to 2-1.
The tying run moved up to third base but was stranded there.
The Tigers threatened in the fifth, loading the bases with two outs but Athens got out of the inning on a ground out.
Then in the seventh Mansfield had one last push. With one out Andrews and Zaparzynski drew walks to put the tying and go ahead runners on.
The two would eventually move up to second and third but they would be stranded there.
After a brief moment where he was struggling to find the strikezone Forbes was able get his control back and struck out the final two batters to get the win and seal the championship.
"I just wanted to strike them out," remarked Forbes.
The team celebrated on the field and nobody was more excited than their coach.
"I tell you what, it's kind of surreal right now," Hitchcock remarked. "These guys worked hard all year, reflecting back to a lot of 1-run ball games. They're starting to believe in themselves, I couldn't say more about the group of guys here."
This title makes up for some frustrating seasons the past couple years.
"After the last couple years we'd struggled a little bit," explained Forbes. "It's great to come in with a new coach and do pretty well."
And the Wildcats did it with help from all of their classes.
"It feels really special to be a part of this," Newman said. "I'm glad I could be there for the team."
Athens felt that they would be able to avenge their earlier loss to the Tigers, 7-6, where Mansfield scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to win.
"We felt pretty confident," remarked Newman. "We just had a bad inning against them the first time."
Fisher went 1-for-4 with a run scored while Stivason was 1-for-3 with an RBI. Vargason and Kleiner had the other two Athens hits.
For Mansfield Zaparzynski and Burd had their two hits with Shaw getting the RBI.
The close game seemed fitting in a year that saw nearly all six of the teams in the Large School have a shot for the division title.
Early on Wyalusing led the division but ultimately fell to sixth by the end of the year. After the halfway point Mansfield held the lead but slowly Athens kept chipping away in second place. Then late in the season Towanda made a push for the title.
"As we got into the second half we just said 'stay in a position to control your own destiny,'" explained Hitchcock. "And we did. Even with some skids we stayed in a position to control our own and that's to their credit, we never got too high or too low. We just kept going after it, doing the things we believed in all year."
Athens wanted to stay in the shadows as each team made its run.
"We just did not want to get full of ourselves," explained Forbes. "Just play our game."
