SPRINGILL C There is odd, weird together with bizarre. Then, there’s so what happened in game two of this particular weekend’s North Webster/Winnfield playoff series.
The Knights, the No. 2 team in Class 3A, are usually moving on to face South Beauregard in the 3A quarterfinals, but it took a hotly-contested rules-induced quit to get there.
North Webster had only allowed Winnfield a four-run seventh inning to send out the game into extras experiencing elimination. Winnfield brought on a pitcher in the eighth inning who had exceeded the LHSAA’s allowed-innings limit night previous by tossing Four.2 innings.
LHSAA rules state a farmer who throws four or even more innings can not return the next day, even so Winnfield was either unaware and also undaunted by the regulation.
A Knights’ assistant guru, Austin Lay, noticed your violation, which carries a punishment of a game forfeit and suspension for the head private coach and player in question.
Having new life, the Knights returned the next day and triumphed in the decisive game some 6-2 to clinch the unlikeliest of quarterfinal styles.
“It’s happened before,” Northern Webster’s first-year head coach Brian Fowler explained. “People make mistakes. (Winnfield) weren’t trying to a single thing harmful, I don’t think; might be they just got caught up aiming to win.”
When the rules violation was first brought to Fowler’s attention, he failed to believe it.
“(Lay) brought that to me as soon as they ran them out there and I didn’t wish to hear it,” Fowler said. “I said to him go find it, in addition to you’d better be right.”
Lay seemed to be right, but it would get two more innings before the match was stopped and an standard ruling was made by the umpires together with LHSAA.
Winnfield head coach Mike Breaux and the team were visibly angry by the ruling. They delivered angry in game 3, only to see their about redemption erased when the Knights’ Ike Modisette drove in three functions with a bases-loaded triple to take a good 4-1 lead in the third inning.
“That’s seeing that excited as I’ve been inside awhile,” Fowler said. “I more or less threw my back out commemorating that one, but luckily zero video has surfaced yet.”
Josh Harrison and TJ Carter, both often-overlooked from the North Webster bullpen, came through with clutch system performances on the mound that will power the Knights. Harrison chucked four strong and Carter finished off the final three scoreless.
“I basically told the guys after the sport we have new life,Inch Fowler said. “Not many teams have that. We have a tough team on the agenda here in South Beauregard, but we are going to start prep on Saturday and try to keep enjoying the second.”