Mckinzie Arms' third strike pitch bounced out of his catcher's mitt and hit the backstop.
As the Higbee catcher tried to track down the ball, Calvary Lutheran's Colin Bernskoetter scored from third standing up. Wild pitches were common in Tuesday's game at Calvary Lutheran, as the Lions as a team drew eight walks and had two hit batsmen in their 10-0 win in five innings against the Tigers.
Three of the Lions' runs came by way of a wild pitch, a walk and a hit batter.
"We're almost too patient, especially when they take the fastball right down the middle. You got to hammer at that, even if they swing and miss," Calvary coach Rusty Bourg said. "We got a little help with the walks and hit batter, but we're putting the ball in play."
Despite drawing as many free bases as the Lions did, they also did found success with the balls they put into play. Calvary had seven hits in the five innings.
Alex Flannigan got things started for Calvary with a lead-off triple past the centerfielder in the bottom of the second inning. Jimmie Wehmeyer singled Flannigan in. Bernskoetter led off the next inning by leggining out an infield single to the first baseman before scoring on the wild pitch.
Calvary struck for six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, which started with an RBI double from Jordan Duenckel past the shortstop. Shea Crisp and Flannigan each followed with bases-loaded walks, and Wehmeyer brought in a run after he has hit by a pitch. Nick Stark and Nathan Bates each added an RBI single to round out the scoring.
Flannigan finished the scoring by slicing a two-run single to left field in the bottom of the fifth inning.
"It's a confidence boost. Could you imagine going into districts having just lost 8-, 9-, 10-0," Bourg said. "That would be a challenge and might make it tough to get them motivated to play. But they played pretty good, pretty loose. They hit the ball so we'll just have to see."
Bernskoetter was nearly perfect on the mound.
His lone baserunner came by way of a bloop single near the third-base foul in the top of the fifth inning. He almost yielded a walk to Chandler Crawford, who leaned back on a 3-2 pitch in the top of the third before being called out on strikes. Bernskoetter pitched all five innings and struck out seven.
"His problem in the past was walking batters, walking the first hitter, getting behind in the count a lot and getting a little tight throwing in," Bourg said of his pitcher. "But he threw strikes."
At the plate, Bernskoetter finished 1-for-3 with a walk, stolen base and a run scored. Flannigan finished 2-for-3 with a triple, a run scored and three RBI. Wehmeyer went 1-for-2 with a stolen base and run scored, while Stark finished 1-for-3 with two RBI and Bates finished 1-for-1 with an RBI.
Calvary finishes its regular season with a record of 7-10. The Lions face the New Franklin Bulldogs on Saturday in Harrisburg to start the Class 2 District 7 Tournament. Bourg said Duenckel will get the start for Calvary.
Despite being 2-2 in the Lions' last four games, Bourg likes where his team stands heading into the district tournament.
"We're playing our best baseball of the year, which is good," Bourg said. "The last four games we're 2-2 but all four games have been decent, so we're playing out best going into district so hopefully it will carry into district playing well."