Baseball: Record-setting season ends for Tigers

HUMBOLDT — Week after week, game after game, the Gilbert baseball team racked up victories and confidence this season, convincing itself it had the ingredients necessary for a postseason run that would reach the state tournament at Principal Park in Des Moines.

That journey ended Monday with just a few too many mistakes that erased an otherwise strong performance as the Class 3A third-ranked Tigers fell to Humboldt, 6-4, at Wildcat Field to end their season in the District 3 final.

“We felt we were good enough to make some noise in the postseason,” Gilbert coach Karl Terrones said. “A 30-5 season is outstanding.

“The game of baseball isn’t best made for a one-game tournament so we’re going to focus on what we did all season long.”

The Tigers, whose 30 wins set a school record, outplayed the Wildcats for much of the game, but defensive and pitching mistakes did them in when their bats couldn’t quite make up the difference.

A walk and an error gave Humboldt, the visiting team on the scoreboard on its home field, its first run of the game in the first inning, but two pitches into the home half of the frame saw Nick Day launch a home run over the right field fence to knot the score.

The two teams then traded runs to set up a 2-2 tie going into a decisive fourth inning.

The frame began with an error and then a walk and hit batsman from Gilbert pitcher Evan Johnson to load the bases, but then Johnson rose to the occasion and struck out the next two Wildcats to seemingly dismantle the threat.

Humboldt, though, was able to coax another two hit batters and a walk to push across three runs despite not getting a hit in the inning.

“We gave away too many opportunities and too many runs,” Terrones said. “Just too many mistakes.”

The Tigers’ errors in the field stood in stark contrast to a number of spectacular defensive plays they made. Shortstop Dax Hatfield had a brilliant barehanded catch and throw to retire one Humboldt batter and then had a leaping catch in foul ground to get another out.

Also, Wyatt Rhoads had a beautiful diving catch in left field, and Steven Lawrence made a running over-the-shoulder catch in center.

“We made a lot of great plays,” Hatfield said. “They did too, though. We knew it was going to be a close game and be decided by a couple of plays.”

Humboldt added one run in the fifth before a single from Lawrence, a triple from Hatfield and a Wildcat error got the Tigers back two runs to make the score 6-4.

Gilbert was able to bring the winning run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh but Wildcat reliever Brenden Schnell got the punchout to end the game.”

“It’s really tough,” Hatfield, a senior said. “The core group of seniors have all played together for a long time. This isn’t how we pictured it ending.

“I’m proud of how we played. We can’t hang our heads too much.”

Humboldt 6, Gilbert 4

Humboldt 110 310 0 - 6 6 3

Gilbert 101 020 0 - 4 7 2

WP - Chris Witzke LP - Evan Johnson