The type of late-inning magic that propelled the Lansing baseball team into the Class B state final worked against the Bobcats on Saturday.
Trailing by three runs, Section 6 champion Depew scored four times in the sixth inning and denied the Bobcats in the seventh after a leadoff double to claim the New York State Public High School Athletic Association title by a 5-4 margin at Binghamton University.
Josh Toolen’s bases-loaded walk with two outs drove in the tying run and Eric Woodley was hit by a pitch to force home the go-ahead run.
The Bobcats were on the winning side of these types of games in their previous two contests.
Lansing scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to rally for a 4-3 win over Skaneateles in the regional final and three in the sixth Friday to come back for a 3-2 semifinal win over Albertus Magnus. The big hit didn’t materialize in the final, with senior star Zack Sperger left at second after leading off the seventh with a double.
“My heart just goes out for our kids,” Lansing coach Brett Hotchkiss said. “They put in the time, they put in the effort, they do just about everything right. But the hard part is you’ve got to play seven innings in a baseball game and today we just didn’t have seven collective innings that led to a victory. It’s definitely disappointing.”
What It Means
The Bobcats finished with an 18-5 record after opening the season 5-4. Lansing made it to the state final as a No. 6 seed in the Section 4 Class B tournament and without winning its division in the Interscholastic Athletic Conference.
This year’s group was seeking to join the unbeaten 2012 team as Lansing state champions.
Depew finished with a 25-1 record and won its first state title.
“That’s baseball. We were the better team and I think that’s something we need to know,” Sperger said. “We weren’t supposed to be here – six seed in our section. Upset I don’t even know how many teams. We come out here and we play good baseball for most of the game. We beat…
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