With two outs in the seventh inning and West Forsyth threatening to finish off a six-run comeback, Roberson junior pitcher CJ Wallace’s only goal was to retire the final batter.
His plan was a strikeout, but by snagging a line-drive comebacker, he accomplished the same thing as the No. 1-seeded Rams (24-4) earned an 8-5 win and a third consecutive trip to the 4A West Regional finals.
After a seven-run first inning gave Roberson an early lead, it withstood pressure to hold off the No. 12 Titans (23-7). It will face No. 14-seed Charlotte Catholic in a best-of-three series starting at home Tuesday.
“The game is designed to make you crack,” Roberson coach Eric Filipek said. “We cracked a little bit, but we still held our ground and had enough in the first to get us through.”
Despite an hour-long rain delay before first pitch, Filipek said his team stayed locked in and ready to go despite the pressure of a single-elimination playoff game.
“They were dialed in,” he said. “I talked to them earlier today. I put it up to them — I said, ‘Y’all want to play this or not?’ . . . They were gung-ho ready to go.”
The Rams were all over West Forsyth in the first inning, starting with a nine-pitch at-bat from junior Zeb Swangim that ended with a single and opened the floodgates for a seven-run opening that proved to be the difference.
After that, Roberson went cold. It was hitless until the bottom of the sixth inning, allowing West Forsyth to capitalize on the Rams' mental mistakes and chip the lead down to two.
“They’re teenagers,” Filipek said. “You get caught up looking at the scoreboard, thinking about what’s next before you actually finish the job. We got out of it a little bit, and that’s the game.”
The Rams made uncharacteristic mistakes throughout the middle innings, finishing with three errors. After a single scored two runs in the fifth, an overthrow trying to catch the batter heading into second sailed past the center fielder to allow the batter to score. Up just 7-5, they kept focused.
“We say all the time, your brothers got you,” Wallace said. “The next person is going to pick you up. It doesn’t get much cooler than that.”
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The Rams picked up junior starting pitcher Micah Simpson after he gave up the first run in the first inning, though he helped himself out by driving in the first two runs in bottom of the inning.
Roberson scored one more in the bottom of the sixth on senior Reno Jeter’s sacrifice fly, officially moving on to the regional final for the third year in a row.
“We feel the best we can,” Simpson said. “Right there, a challenge at the end, and we matched it. No matter who we play, we’re playing against the baseball and if we’re playing our best, we give ourselves a good shot.”
Evan Gerike is the high school sports reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email him at egerike@citizentimes.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanGerike. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Big 1st inning helps Roberson hold off West Forsyth, get to NCHSAA baseball regional final
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