Tabor rallies late for second time this week

Written by AO Friday, 21 March 2008 12:37

After slugging their way to a sweep of non-conference foe Waldorf, 18-17 Wednesday and 19-7 Thursday, the Bluejays rallied from behind to defeat the Friends in the first half of Friday's doubleheader, 12-10. The second game tilted to the visitors, who took advantage of a lower body injury sustained by Tabor shortstop Jordan Lago and a strong wind blowing out to right field, defeating the Bluejays 11-1 in five innings.

The come-from-behind win over Friends followed on the heels of a rally that gave everyone involved, including coach Chad Newhard, a renewed appreciation for the tenacity of this season's squad.

Trailing 16-6 through seven innings of a game slated to go nine, Tabor scored five runs in the bottom half to dodge the mercy rule. The Bluejays then stymied Waldorf in the top of the eighth and plated four more runs in the home half, making the score 16-15 with six outs remaining.

Waldorf scored once more to push the visiting lead to 17-15, but Tabor got into the bottom half without further damage. The Bluejays then finished the rally off, pulling themselves up by their stirrup socks to load the bases with no outs.

A walk to Andrew Cook brought Tyler Sizemore across to make it a 1-run game, and consecutive strikeouts brought Alfred Wilson to the plate with a chance to play the part of Ernest Lawrence Thayer's most famous character. But Wilson abruptly dashed any comparison between himself and the Mighty Casey of legend and lore by lashing a single through the middle to bring in Ryan Boucher and Eric LiCalsi with the tying run and the winner.

Tabor's website reports that Newhard said he has "never been a part of a game where a team fought back from such an incredible deficit late in the game...This can be a defining moment for our team and something that we can build on for the rest of the season.”

The Bluejays (10-13, 3-1 KCAC ) play Sterling (6-18, 0-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday.