Rosehill Christian Shuts Out Hill Country Christian 7-0, Advances to Division IV Championship

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The Rosehill Christian Eagles scored 5 runs in the 7th to break open a close game and RHP Ben Nicholson applied the “bend but don’t break” method to shut out the Hill Country Christian Knights as the Eagles advanced to the TAPPS Division IV Championship Game with a 7-0 victory. Rosehill will meet Midland Classical in a 10:00 AM Championship matchup Saturday.

Rosehill picked up their first run in the 2nd inning on a Drew Yeary RBI single that plated Walton Wierner. Two innings later the Eagles scored their second run of the game when an Alex Forsythe infield single scored Yeary. The score stayed 2-0 until the 7th when Rosehill broke the game open. With runners on 2nd and 3rd with out and the outfield in, Nicholson sent a fly ball over the head of the left field for a 2 RBI triple. Zandon Pritchard followed with an RBI double and later Thomas Voorheis hit a 2 RBI double to make the score 7-0.

Meanwhile, Nicholson and his defense found ways to get out of a jam on the mound. In the first, after a walk and an error, Nicholson got a strikeout to end the inning. After 2 walks in the 3rd inning, Wierner threw out a runner on an attempted steal and then Nicholson got two flyouts to end the inning. In the sixth, after a single and a walk, Nicholson got a soft foul ball caught by Wierner and two soft ground outs to 3rd and 1st. In the final inning an error put the lead off on 1st base. Nicholson got a fly out and then a ground ball to 1B Pritchard who stepped on first and threw to SS Yeary for the double play tag out to end the game.

“Obviously my heart was pumping out there because I didn’t want them to score,” Nicholson explained about the Hill Country scoring threats. “I just told myself to throw some strikes, try to get them to hit it and get some outs or maybe some double plays. I trust my boys out in the field.”

Nicholson gave up 7 walks but gave up only one hit and struck 5 in pitching his complete game shut out. He was also 1-3 with a triple and 2 RBIs at the plate. For his outstanding game, Nicholson was named the THSB Player of the Game.