When Matthew Dampf stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in a tie game in the bottom of the seventh inning, he had every intention of ending the game with a walk-off hit.
He walked it off all right, just not with the kind of hit he had expected.
Dampf was hit by a pitch on a 2-2 count, forcing in Nick Brandt from third base to give the Helias Crusaders a 4-3 win against the Blair Oaks Falcons on Tuesday at the American Legion Post 5 Sports Complex.
"I was expecting (a curveball) with two strikes, and I was just trying to get something to the outfield to get that runner in," said Dampf, who was hit by a pitch twice in the game. "I saw it coming, I just turned because I knew it was going to hit me."
The win is the eighth in a row for the Crusaders, and second this season against the Falcons.
"It was a great game with two very quality ballclubs," Blair Oaks coach Travis Henke said. "Not the way we wanted it to go down, but it happens. It's baseball."
Brandt hit a one-out single to left field in the seventh and advanced into scoring position on a passed ball. Zach Stiles then singled to left, moving Brandt to third base.
Blair Oaks brought in Ryan Paschal to relieve starting pitcher Ethan Rackers, who threw 99 pitches in 61/3 innings and had one walk and two strikeouts. The Falcons intentionally walked Trevor Austin to load the bases and bring Dampf to the plate.
"That's a tough position," Henke said. "You can't give up a deep fly ball, you can't give up a hit, you can't walk a guy. You have to strike him out or get a ground ball for a double play. That's a lot to ask of a high school pitcher."
Tuesday's game was an evenly matched pitcher's duel between Rackers and Helias' Connor McKenna, who reached the 105-pitch count limit on his last batter in the seventh. McKenna gave up just three hits and finished with three walks and six strikeouts.
"Connor will tell you that he didn't have his best stuff today," said Helias assistant coach Taylor Bax, who filled in for head coach Chris Wyrick while he served a one-game suspension after being ejected during Saturday's game against Lutheran: St. Charles. "He came out a little flat early on, and you can't do that against a good team like Blair Oaks.
"But I can't tell you enough about Connor. I know when he hits that limit, he's gone, but he did everything he could until he got there."
Blair Oaks scored two runs in the top of the first inning off McKenna. Paschal scored from first on a dropped pop fly and then an overthrow to third base, while Jason Rackers scored on an RBI single by Ethan Rackers to give Blair Oaks a 2-0 lead.
"It was a tough play, but we took advantage of it," Henke said of the errors. "I was hoping we would get another hit and score a few more runs, but they battled out of it and held us to two."
Helias answered with an RBI double by Alex Buschjost in the bottom of the first and then tied the game at 2 in the fourth when Austin scored on a groundout after hitting a leadoff double.
The Crusaders had hoped to add more runs early on, but they lost runners on base to end both the first and second innings.
"We did a lot of things right on the basepaths too that were overlooked by our bad mistakes," Bax said.
Brandt's RBI double in the fifth give Helias its first lead of the game at 3-2, but Blair Oaks answered in the sixth inning. Tyler Swehla lined a single up the middle, which deflected off the glove of a diving Parker Schnieders and went into center field, scoring Ethan Rackers to tie the game at 3.
"We felt like we had the momentum," Henke said. "We had scored that run and we were feeling good, starting to hit the ball a little bit better."
McKenna worked around a one-out walk in the seventh to set up a chance for Helias to win in the bottom half of the inning.
"Our pitching has been spectacular this year," Bax said. "I can't say enough about it."
Stiles, Schnieders and Brandt each had two singles for Helias (11-4), which plays Thursday at Eldon.
"After struggling early on, we're starting to look a lot better," Dampf said. "We're starting to play as a team more and doing the little things. It's really translating on the field into some Ws."
Blair Oaks (11-7) will return to Tri-County Conference play Thursday when it hosts Versailles.
"Let's win our conference, that's the first stepping stone," Henke said. "Then we'll move on to districts. Helias probably has that No. 1 seed, but we've got to come out and find a way to battle back and see what happens."
In the JV game, Blair Oaks rallied with two runs in the top of the fifth inning to beat Helias 7-6.
Maclaine McCarter, Cameron Hardwick and Kamron Morriss each had two hits for Blair Oaks, which improved to 6-3.