By TOM NYHUIS
Niles Daily Star

SCHOOLCRAFT – Looking to steal a run in the fourth inning left the Buchanan baseball team out of the championship game Saturday at the Division 3 Regional tournament played at Schoolcraft High School.

With a pitchers dual battling on the mound, both Buchanan and Constantine were looking to score runs and for an opportunity to get a run across the plate. In the end it was Constantine scoring three runs in the fifth to secure its bid for the championship with a 3-0 victory over Buchanan.

The Bucks biggest scoring opportunity of the day came in the bottom of the fourth with runners at second and third with two outs.

Senior David Sokolowski was at third as the Falcon defense turned their back on the runner and the catcher walking to the pitchers mound. Sokolowski began to make a move to the plate, but was spotted by the defense and before he could retrieve back to third he was tagged out to end the inning.

“We didn’t know if a timeout had been called or not and we noticed that the catcher’s back and the pitcher’s back were turned,” Buchanan coach Joe Racht said of the play. “The pitcher was rubbing the ball up and we were creeping off the base and ready for one of them to put their mitt down and unfortunately they caught us peeking in a little bit. The bottom line is they played a cleaner game than us and usually the team that plays the cleanest game at this point wins.”

The Falcons came back and scored three runs in the top of the fifth. Blake Piper picked up the teams second hit of the day with a triple to start the inning.

Buchanan pitcher, Bryan Kuntz, then struck out the next two batters he faced and worked the count full to the next. A passed ball allowed runner to score from third and the batter on first with the walk. Constantine’s steal attempt was called safe after the umpire ruled Buchanan second baseman Nate Henckel dropped the ball after the tag was applied.

“It was a clear out,” Racht said. “My player got spiked  and was walking away from the play and he let his mitt drop to the ground because his hand was all cut up. The ump said because he didn’t take the ball out (of the glove) with his hand that it was continuation of the play and that he was safe.”

The inning continued to spiral downward after a dropped fly ball in center. The Falcons led 3-0 and that was all Falcon pitcher, Ron Francher, would need to take his team to the title game as he gave up just three singles in the game. The Bucks Dalton Shearer collected two singles and one single for Kuntz.

“Bottom line is none of that stuff matters if you don’t score a run,” Racht said. “We tip our hat to their pitcher, who did an unbelievable job. He threw strikes with his fastball and kept his breaking ball down and he deserves all the credit in the world.”

For the Bucks, Kuntz finished the day allowing four hits and striking out 12 while giving up three walks.

“I think our program is where we need it to be. We have a lot of young players on the team and I thing we are going to be the program to beat for a long time to come. Fundamentally we are solid and we have a lot of pitching depth and I fell good about our future,” Racht stated about his team.

Constantine 000 030 0 – 3 4 0
Buchanan  000 000 0 – 0 3 1
WP- Ron Francher
LP- Bryan Kuntz