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Lowe’s walk-off single lifts Logan to 5-4 win over Herbert Hoover in state semifinal

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Logan coach Kevin Gertz didn’t feel the Wildcats outplayed Herbert Hoover in Friday’s Class AA semifinal at Power Park.

Yet thanks to a walk-off single from sophomore Konner Lowe in the seventh inning, No. 2 Logan found a way to move on to Saturday’s title game as the Wildcats outlasted the No. 3 Huskies 5-4.

Lowe took an 0-2 offering from Matthew Toops to left field, allowing Tyler Fenwick to score from second base for the winning run.

“Hats off to Hoover. They played great and pitched outstanding,” Gertz said. “They outplayed us today. We swung it a little better, but we pride ourselves on pitching and defense. We walked nine and hit one so there’s ten free baserunners. And we made three errors, but we still found a way to win and that’s huge.”

Logan (28-6) trailed 3-2 after the second inning and that score stood until the bottom of the fifth when the Wildcats took their first lead of the game. Consecutive one-out singles from Garrett Williamson and Fenwick put the tying and go-ahead runs on base, and both came in to score on Aiden Slack’s bloop single to right off Huskies’ starting pitcher Ryan Beasley.

“I’m proud of these guys,” Gertz said. “They’ve not played in this and this is different. Most of these guys won a Little League state title four years ago, but I said, ‘Boys this isn’t Little League. You have a lot of talent and everybody wants you, but I don’t know mentally that you’re there.’ This will help get us there.”

Herbert Hoover (20-14) went down in order in the sixth and came to bat in the seventh needing a run to prolong the game. Fortunately for the Huskies, they had the top of their batting order up, though Carson Kirk took away a leadoff hit from Will Bright with a leaping grab at short. 

However, Austin Hanson followed with a single and Dylan Livington drew a walk that led to Fenwick replacing Dawson Maynard on the mound.

Fenwick induced a fly ball for the second out, but then issued back-to-back base on balls, the latter of which was drawn by Nick Grayam to bring in the tying run.

Hoover had a chance to go ahead immediately after, but Landon Bounds’ fly out to center ended the inning.

“Their last hit got to the ground and ours didn’t,” Hoover coach JR Oliver said. “That’s all there is to it. A couple more feet, that ball is down, the bases are cleared and maybe things are different. But that’s baseball. 

“These kids are tough. To go through everything they have been through over their high school careers, way more than a normal high school kid has to deal with, I haven’t even thought about what I’m going to say to them, because I didn’t want to think about that. It’s a special group of kids and I love every one of them.”

That set the stage for the walk-off win, which became possible after Williamson’s one-out single, with him moving to second on an error. After an intentional walk to Fenwick, Slack’s sacrifice bunt attempt was unsuccessful and led to Williamson being forced out at third.

Lowe took matters into his own hands from there, providing the hit that sends the Wildcats to their first title game since they last won a championship in 2008.

“I knew what I had to do to help my team win,” Lowe said. “I knew I had to get something down for a hit, because we had speed on the bases so I just tried to get him in.”

The Huskies pushed two runs across without a hit in the opening inning, capitalizing on two walks, two wild pitches and an error.

Logan cut its deficit in half with Williamson’s run-scoring single in the home half of the first.

Postgame ‘Round of Sound’

After a hit batsman and walk started the top of the second for Hoover, Logan replaced starting pitcher Jarron Glick with Chad Burnette.

The Huskies scored one run on another Logan error, but Burnette worked out of further trouble by escaping a bases loaded, one-out jam to keep his team’s deficit at 3-1.

“Chad is the reason we won today’s game,” Gertz said.

Ryan Roberts’ two-out RBI single allowed the Wildcats to again cut their deficit in half in the second, though they left the bases loaded that inning.

Burnette settled in over the next several innings and finished with four scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out three. He also issued three of the nine walks by Logan’s pitching staff.

Logan finished with an 11-4 edge in hits, including a game-high three from Williamson.

Fenwick was the winning pitcher, while Toops took the loss.

The Wildcats will battle North Marion in the Class AA final Saturday at approximately 1:30 p.m.

“We’re where we want to be,” Gertz said. “We’re not satisfied with where we are. We came here to win a title, but you can’t win without getting there and we got there.”





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