East erupted for four runs in the bottom of the first inning and went on to smoke Centerville 10-0, with Craig Thomson’s two-run, walk-off double in the fifth ending the run-rule affair at Miamisburg.
“That doesn’t happen very much, but when it does, it feels great,” said Thomson, a senior second baseman who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and drove in four runs.
“Keeping our name on the banner, that’s what we wanted to do,” added senior pitcher Evan Hills, who threw a four-hitter with four strikeouts. “We’re pretty confident. We think we can beat anybody.”
Jesse Rait’s two-run homer started the scoring for East, which improved to 20-7 and will meet Clayton Northmont in a 5 p.m. regional semifinal Thursday at the University of Cincinnati.
“It was key for us to get off to a start like that,” Thunderhawks coach Ray Hamilton said. “I thought if we could put offensive pressure on them, Hills might be able to hold them down enough. And we swung it today.”
Matt Sullivan, the first of three Elk pitchers, lasted into the fourth inning and gave up six runs as Centerville slipped to 20-7.
“We got outplayed in every phase of the game,” Elks coach Terry Dickten said. “It was obvious they were a better team than us today. If you watched the game, that was it.”
East totaled 13 hits, getting big efforts from Rait (3-for-4, three runs) and Alex Corna (3-for-3, two doubles, two runs, three RBIs).
Corna also gunned down a CHS runner at third base on a 9-5 play.
“As soon as Jesse’s home run took off, everything felt great after that,” Thomson said. “That loosened up everybody.”
The early scoring outburst took the pressure off Hills, who won for the seventh time this year.
“You could just throw strikes and let ’em hit it,” Hills said. “That’s all I was doing, throwing strikes and having fun.”
The Thunderhawks did receive a scare in the fourth inning when first baseman Mitch Geers got hit in the face with Sullivan’s last pitch of the day. Geers went out briefly before returning to action, and Hamilton said his nose may be broken.
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