Rehobeth downs Headland to move win away from winning Class 5A, Area 3

Now they just don’t need to crash next Thursday against Carroll to take the area title and earn a first-round state playoff series at home.

Behind efficient pitching from Zach Hannah and a key three-run fourth inning, the Rebels defeated Headland 5-1 Friday afternoon in Rehobeth to stay in first place of the three-team area.

Friday’s win came on the heels of a 4-2 Rebel win at Headland Thursday night.

“That’s the two best baseball games we have put together since I have been here in two-and-a half years,” Rehobeth head coach John Griffin said. “Game 1 (Thursday night) was flawless in all three areas — hitting, fielding and pitching. Today, we didn’t come out like we did (Thursday night), but we got some timely hits, though we are striking out too much (nine strikeouts), and the pitching was pretty good.”

Rehobeth (11-3 overall) improved to 2-0 in the area with the two wins. Headland (10-6 overall), which swept Carroll last week, fell to 2-2. Carroll is 0-2. Rehobeth needs to win only one of the two games at home Thursday against Carroll to win the area crown.

“I am real proud of these guys,” Griffin said. “The last couple of years we have been down. We haven’t had an older bunch. The last two years, we had just three seniors on each group. Now we have a junior-senior team and it is a big difference in high school baseball.”

Of the 19 players listed on Rehobeth’s line-up sheet for Friday’s game, nine were juniors and seven were seniors. All nine starters were juniors or seniors.

Hannah, a junior left-hander, was solid enough on the mound on Friday. He allowed only four hits and struck out 10, but also walked six. He worked around most of the danger except for one blip in the second inning.

“The freebies are the ones that kill you and we dodged some bullets by letting those walks amount,” Griffin said as the Rams left nine runners on base in the game.

After struggling in the second inning, Hannah got into a groove in the third through six innings, allowing only three base runners in the four frames. He retired eight in a row before running into seventh-inning trouble behind two walks and a single that loaded the bases and brought the tying run to the plate.

However, reliever Lane Cook entered and induced a fly ball out to second baseman Luke Strickland in short right field to end the threat and the game. Cook earned a save in preserving the win for Hannah.

Rehobeth scored three in the fourth to break a 1-1 all tie and added an insurance run in the sixth to build the 5-1 advantage. The Rebel offense finished with nine hits, led by two each from Cook and Drew Fritsche.

Four of the hits – one each by Joel Watkins, Zach Chandler, Fritsche and Peyton Stephens — delivered home a run. A throwing error allowed the other Rebel run to score. Chandler and Strickland had the only extra-bases hits as both had one double.

Headland struck first during the second inning. Tanner Raybon led the inning off with an opposite field double to right field and Reigh Jordan followed with a single to right to put runners at the corners.

After a foul pop out to the catcher, Headland coach Les Lancaster sent Jordan from first on a steal, drawing a throw, and Raybon scored during the throw on a double steal.

The Rams later loaded the bases in the inning following walks to Eliot Griffin and Jake Johnson, but Hannah got a strikeout to end the frame.

Rehobeth tied it in the bottom of the third. Stephens led off with a walk and scored two batters later on a run-scoring double off the right-center field wall by Chandler.

The Rebels surged ahead with their three-run fourth. After a strikeout opened the inning, Cook, Hannah and Fritsche earned consecutive singles with Fritsche’s hit driving home Cook.

With runners at the corners, Fritsche took off during a pickoff attempt, but Headland’s throw to second by the first baseman was bad and pinch runner Noah Lee scored from third. After a walk to Stephens, Watkins singled up the middle to drive Fritsche home to make it 4-1.

The Rebels earned their insurance run in the sixth. Fritsche singled in the shortstop hole and moved to second on a passed ball before scoring on a single to right field by Stephens.

The Rams had one last chance in the seventh as Griffin walked, Mason Steele singled and Tyson Kirkland walked to load the bases with two outs, but Cook induced the short fly out to end the game.

The Rams finished with four hits – a double by Raybon and a single each by Steele, Jordan and Bryce Cunningham.

Rehobeth, according to Griffin, will now rest up a couple of days before gearing up for the area’s final series against Carroll.

“We have Spring Break now and you know the world stops for Spring Break,” Griffin said. “We will get back to it Tuesday afternoon which gives us two days to practice (before Carroll).”