Published: May 30, 2008 12:59 am      

Big 7th lifts Mavs past Berries

McCutcheon breaks open 1-1 game with four-run seventh inning to oust Logansport.

LAFAYETTE — Logansport was in a good position most of the game against McCutcheon in its sectional opener Thursday at Loeb Stadium.

The Berries were engaged in a pitchers’ duel with their ace on the mound in senior Luke Zinsmaster, who entering the contest had nearly half the squad’s wins on the season with just one setback. Zinsmaster was masterful most of the way, but so was McCutcheon senior right-hander Neil Hudson. And with the game tied 1-1 entering the seventh inning, it was the Mavericks who broke through with a big inning to take control en route to knocking out the Berries, 5-1.

McCutcheon (18-12) loaded the bases in the top of the seventh with a sharp single, a hit batsmen and a bloop single. Leadoff man Cory Rush stepped to the plate with one out and after showing bunt on one of the pitches, hit a smash down the third-base line just under the glove of third baseman Mark Fultz to score two runs to give the Mavs their first lead of the game. Travis Fleming followed with an RBI single to make it 4-1. McCutcheon then recorded its second steal of home plate of the game to give them a 5-1 advantage.

The Mavs recorded four of their seven hits in the game — all of which were singles — in the fateful seventh.

“They just started hitting,” Zinsmaster said of the Mavericks. “They probably caught up to the fastball a little. But I left a couple over the plate and they’re a good team and that’s what happens.”

The Berries (17-12) got a bit of their own medicine with McCutcheon stealing home twice. The first tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth inning when catcher Eric Tippy scored about a second before Nick Wittgren was tagged out trying to steal second for the third out of the inning. The steal of home in the seventh was recorded during a rundown when Fleming tried to steal second, and Rush broke home and just beat the throw for the Mavs’ fifth run of the game.

“Everybody does it. The good teams do it,” Logan coach Jim Turner said of the successful steals of home. “The first one we didn’t execute. We’ve got a play that we try to get the player out before the run scores and we were just a little bit late on executing that. And the next time was kind of a fluke, really. That doesn’t happen often to good teams and we just weren’t able to make a good throw there. But I think at that point we were kind of dejected and they were able to get a little momentum and really bury us at that point.”

Logansport jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning thanks to offensive production from a pair of sophomores. Chris Titus recorded the first hit of the game and then stole second on an early jump against Hudson (8-4). Jon Tierney followed with an RBI single to right to get LHS on the board first.

The Berries had a couple deep drives to left-center field that were caught on the warning track by McCutcheon left fielder Trey Fankhauser. Zinsmaster hit one of the extra-base bids in the fifth inning and Sam Starbuck hit one in the seventh with a runner on that was hauled in for the last out of the game.

Logan also had a couple runners thrown out on the base pads trying to get the extra base. Turner noted the outs took perfect throws by McCutcheon and that team speed was the Berries’ overall biggest strength.

“We’ve lived and died all year being aggressive, and that’s just our game,” Turner said. “If they beat us at that, then they beat us at that. That’s us.”

Hudson held LHS to one run on five hits, striking out three.

“You’ve got to score more than one run,” Turner said. “You’ve got to put the ball in play and their pitcher did a good job of keeping us down.”

Zinsmaster was happy overall with the Berries’ season.

“You can’t be disappointed. It was so much fun. I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” he said.

And for his eight classmates that played their last game in a Logansport uniform, Zinsmaster said they were “great leaders, friends and just good ball players... It makes it a lot of fun.”

Beau Wicker can be contacted at (574) 732-5113 or via e-mail at beau.wicker@pharostribune.com