CLASS 6A: Baxendale delivers big hit

FAYETTEVILLE - D.J. Baxendale had a year to think about what went wrong.

Now he'll have a year to celebrate everything going right.

Baxendale lined a single to right-center field in the top of the seventh inning that scored Hunter Miller and gave Sylvan Hills a 5-4 victory over Watson Chapel in the Class 6A championship Saturday at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.

A year ago, Baxendale took the loss in Abundant Life's 5-1 loss to Horatio in the Class 2A championship game despite giving up only three hits and striking out eight.

Now a junior at nearby Sylvan Hills, Baxendale did more with his bat to decide Saturday's outcome than his pitching. After Clint Thornton clubbed a threerun home run to tie the game in the seventh, Baxendale lined a 3-0 pitch by Chance Cleveland to score the game-winning RBI.

Nathan Eller then retired Watson Chapel's last three batters in order to clinch state title No. 7 for Sylvan Hills (29-6).

"I was looking for a fastball that I could drive," Baxendale said. "I knew [Cleveland] had been working away, so I looked away, he went away, and I just went with it."

That the difference was only one run wasn't much of a surprise. The shocker night have been the number of runs scored given the pitching matchup.

Neither Baxendale or Watson Chapel starter Michael Newby were expected to surrender many runs, and both pitchers lived up to their reputations as Division-I baseball recruits.

Neither gave up a run until the bottom of the fifth inning, when the Wildcats (23-4) scored four runs off Baxendale, including a two-run single by Cleveland.

"They were the first team to make an adjustment and sit on my slider," Baxendale said. "It really shook me up, and that's when I had to get out of there."

The Bears made a tentative stab at a rally the next inning, with Thornton leading off with a double to left field and Mark Turpin following with a single up the middle to score Thornton.

But the Bears couldn't push any more runs across until the seventh inning, which began with back-toback singles off Cleveland, whocame on for Newby in the sixth.

Those singles, by Jordan Spears and Jake Chambers, set things up for Thornton, who hit a home run on a 2-0 pitch.

"He threw me two curveballs starting off," Thornton said. "He had a good curve, he just threw them both for balls. I was looking fastball and he threw it. I was just trying to get a hit, but when I hit it, I knew it was gone."

Baxendale's game-winning hit was preceded by a single by Hunter Miller, who moved into scoring position by stealing second.

"We knew coming in it would be a one-run game," Watson Chapel Coach Wayne Richardson said. "We figured it would be 1-0 or 2-1, but I didn't think about it being 5-4. We had our chances."

The victory ends a season of distractions for Sylvan Hills, one that began January 25 when former teammate Taylor Roark was killed in a two-car accident.

Then, on April 3, high winds hit the Sherwood area, dealing heavy damage to the Bears' baseball facility and forcing the team to play its remaining schedule on the road.

The storm also damaged the homes of several players on the team.

"As far as all the things that were brought toward us, a death, a tornado, no practice field, I couldn't be any more prouder of these kids," Sylvan Hills Coach Denny Tipton said. "They've been through everything, and they showed up every day."