DRAMATIC HR LIFTS CHAFFEE TO CROWN

With one swing of the bat, the Chaffee Red Devils put a fork in the Kelly Hawks' 2001 baseball season.

A walk-off home run by G. P. Glueck off Kelly reliever Garrett Stricker with two outs in the bottom of the seventh powered Chaffee to a 5-4 victory in the Class 2A, District 2 championship game at Notre Dame High School on Thursday.

The win improved Chaffee to 23-2 and propelled the Red Devils into a 2A sectional contest next Thursday against District 1 winner South Pemiscot.

"It came down to the final play and you just have to take your hat off to the Glueck kid," said Kelly coach Mike Scott. "He hit a good pitch."

On his game-winning blast, which came on a curveball, Glueck said, "I was pumped. Actually, I've been having a little trouble with the breaking ball, but I stayed in there and hit it."

The home run helped erase a critical two-out error in the top of the inning that kept the game alive and allowed the Hawks to score two unearned runs that tied the game at 4-4. Kelly's Major Burger made the Red Devils pay for the error as he drove in the tying run with his third hit of the day, a bloop single to left field.

Another pivotal inning was the fifth. Kelly (13-15) loaded the bases on two hits and a walk with no outs and the heart of the batting order Justin Simpher, Barry Ziegler and Tim Schmitt coming to the plate.

But Matt Stroup, (11-1) with a stingy ERA of 0.94 entering the game, showed why he is considered the premier hurler in the area, as he struck out the side to end the threat. Stroup also fanned the side in the sixth to finish with 12 strikeouts on the day.

Glueck led Chaffee with three hits and three RBIs. His first-inning single knocked in Stroup, who had tripled to send the Red Devils up 1-0.

The Red Devils extended their lead to 3-0 in the second frame. A triple by Jeremy Lynn sandwiched around a couple of Hawk errors plated two unearned runs.

Kelly, with the help of two singles and two Red Devil errors, cut the gap to 3-2 in the third. Chaffee picked up a single run in the bottom of the fifth to go up 4-2.

"That's something that we need to start doing a little better job on," said Chaffee coach Brian Horrell. "Here late in the season, we score some runs and then we go out and give a couple right back. You can only do that so many times."

In uncharacteristic fashion, Chaffee, a team that thrives on pitching and defense, was a little shaky in both departments. All four of Kelly's runs were unearned.

Stroup, although tough in the clutch, obviously didn't have his best stuff as he allowed 10 hits. Tyler Schlosser had two hits for Kelly.

Schmitt, the Kelly starter, kept the Hawks in the game as he gave up seven hits and four runs, three unearned. He struck out four.

Horrell, while not exactly thrilled with the performance, was happy to get the win.

"We were fortunate to get the runs we did and we're just glad to advance and move on," he said.

"As long as I've been coaching baseball, even the good teams that move on to state, you can always look back and somewhere along the way find a game where you catch a break. Hopefully we didn't use up all of ours today."