AURORA — Smoky Hill shortstop Jason Williams went right to the crux of the matter .
“Literally, one centimeter difference of where he hits it on the bat and that’s a line shot,” he said.
He was referring to teammate Brett Bandy’s at-bat in the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday at Wolitzky Field, which instead was a soft liner to third and nabbed by Mullen’s Zach Branigan to seal the visiting Mustangs’ wild 6-5 Class 5A Centennial League win.
Smoky Hill had runners on second and third, and the No. 8 Buffaloes likely would have had a walkoff win had Bandy’s ball been slightly elevated. Instead, heartbreak.
“The thing about this league is, you could be having the best game of your life and still might get beat,” said Williams, who clubbed one of Smoky’s four solo home runs. “In my opinion, it’s the hardest league in the state by far.”
Relieved Mullen skipper Vince Porreco agreed, saying: “Everyone in the Centennial League is tough. You have to go into it like it’s the championship game every time.”
This one definitely had a postseason feel, as No. 9 Mullen (10-3, 5-3) broke a 4-4 tie in the top of the sixth on an RBI single by pinch-hitter Cameron Bush and pushed it to 6-4 in the seventh on a solo homer by Joey Samuels.
Smoky Hill (9-4, 4-4) trimmed it to 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh on Shane Fessel’s second homer of the game, but Mullen reliever Aaron Mispagel nailed down the save by coaxing Bandy’s lineout.
“It’s crazy out here,” Mullen starter Seth Davis said. “It was just intense the whole game.”
Davis became a baseball cliche — in a good way — by earning the win despite not having his best stuff. He walked six and allowed three solo homers in his five innings of work, but the senior left-hander (4-0) assisted his cause by going 3-for-4 with an RBI.
“It’s the little things that make the difference, and I think we took care of some little things,” Porreco said.
Mullen 000 221 1 — 6 11 1
Smoky Hill 101 020 1 — 5 7 1
Mullen (ab-r-h-rbi) — Silva lf-cf 3-1-1-0, Boyer c 2-0-1-0, Haggerty cr 0-1-0-0, Samuels ss 4-1-2-2, Davis p-lf 4-0-3-1, Porreco cr 0-1-0-0, Bayers 1b 4-1-1-1, Erhart rf 4-0-1-0, Branigan 3b 1-1-1-0, DeCristino cf 2-0-0-0, Mispagel p 0-0-0-0, Comito 2b 2-0-0-0, Bush ph 1-0-1-1. Totals 27-6-11-5.
Smoky Hill — Bothwell 2b 3-1-1-0, Ogden cf 3-0-0-0, Williams ss-c 3-1-1-1, Fessel c-p 3-2-2-2, Hill dh 3-0-1-0, Phillip pr 0-0-0-0, Wright p-lf 3-1-1-1, Snyder rf 4-0-1-0, Bandy 1b 2-0-0-0, Klatt lf 1-0-0-0, Martinez ph 1-0-0-0, Brooks 3b-ss 0-0-0-0, Gaines 3b 0-0-0-0. Totals 26-5-7-4.
E — Erhart, Brooks. DP — Smoky Hill 1. LOB — Mullen 6, Smoky Hill 9. 2B — Bayers, Bothwell, Snyder. HR — Samuels (solo in seventh); Wright (solo in third), Williams (solo in fifth), Fessel 2 (solos in fifth and seventh). SAC — Branigan, DeCristino, Klatt.
Batteries — Davis, Mispagel (6) and Boyer; Wright, Fessel (7) and Fessel, Williams (7). W — Davis (4-1). L — Wright (5-1). Sv. — Mispagel (1). HBP — Bothwell (by Davis). T — 2:39.
