Galena baseball wins a wild one

The only thing missing was a black cat.

Galena and Reno High Schools played a baseball game that only could have happened on Friday the 13th in the Northern 4A playoffs at Reno High. After coming within an eyelash of ending the game after five innings due to the five-run rule, the Grizzlies blew a 9-run lead, overcame having the possible winning run thrown out at the plate, then scored on a misplayed popup to beat the Huskies 11-10. And oh, there was also a 10-minute rain delay.

The Grizzlies won their 17th straight game to advance to the Northern 4A title game against Spanish Springs at 3 p.m. today at Reno High. The winner advances to next week's NIAA 4A State Championships.

"It was kind of a brutal way to end the game, but we'll take it," Galena coach Gary McNamara said. "Emotionally, unbelievable up and down for the last 30 minutes of the ball game."

Galena led 9-1 going into the bottom of the fifth inning and after scoring to make it 10-1, it had the bases loaded with one out, needing just one more run to end the game. But the Grizzlies couldn't score.

"Then it turned into this giant mess at the end," McNamara said. "We played as well as we could for five innings."

The Grizzlies still led 10-3 going into the seventh with starting pitcher Jacob Anderson in control. It looked like Anderson was still in control when he struck out the first batter to end the inning.

But Reno's next two batters reached and then came a questionable call on a groundball to Justin Norvick at shortstop. Norvick threw to Tony Thompson at third for the force, but it was ruled that Thompson came off the bag.

Reno closed to within 10-6 on two singles and an RBI sacrifice fly. With two outs, the Huskies made it 10-9 on a three-run home run. John Wallace's ground rule double gave Reno runners at second and third and Anthony Stewart's infield single tied the game. A popup ended the inning.

Then came the rain that caused the delay "which actually might have been a blessing in disguise," said McNamara, commenting on how the delay may have settled down his team.

J.D. Peters walked to begin the bottom of the seventh and moved to second on Andrew Ferguson's sacrifice bunt. Thompson singled up the middle, but Peters was cut down trying to score.

But Eric Maupin sent a high popup that was misplayed by the Reno infield and Thompson scored all the way from first. Maupin was credited with an RBI single.

Peters went 3-for-4 with a two-run home run, Ferguson was 2-for-3 with an RBI, Thompson was 2-for-5, Maupin went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI, Basim Azzam was 2-for-3 with two RBI and a double, Jake Hess had a double and two RBI and Norvick added a hit for Galena.