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GREENVILLE - Baseball is a beautiful game, but it can also be cruel.
The Carrollton Hawks were three outs away from defeating the vaunted Gibault Catholic Hawks behind the gritty effort by freshman pitcher, Grant Pohlman who had kept Gibault scoreless for two and one-third innings. However, Gibault seeing their season on the brink of extinction, rallied to get three straight base hits to load the bases for Tim Reinholtz, who had kept them in the game through three scoreless innings on the mound.
On the first pitch, Reinholtz belted a game-winning grand slam off the top of the centerfield fence to send Gibault into jubilation with a 6-3 victory over Carrollton to claim the Class 1A Greenville Sectional Championship on Saturday afternoon.
“I have no words to describe it,” Reinholtz said. “I knew I had to get it either in the air or just get it through the infield. I didn’t feel any pressure. If I screwed up, I know the hitters behind me would do the job. Our team this whole year has been putting a good name for the program. Winning this helps that.”
“When [Cole] Buckner came up with two guys on he says, “coach, I want to bunt,” Gibault head coach Andy Skaer said. “I was going to let him fire away at it, and he said he wanted to bunt. I gave him one hack at it; he got it down and then set the table for Timmy to do the dramatic stuff.”
Reinholtz made it seem like a one-man show for Gibault.
He plated all six runs, went 3-for-3 reaching base every at-bat and pitched three innings giving up no earned runs, four strikeouts, three walks, and three hits. Bucker finished 2-for-4 while Mark Brantz, Austin Sweeny, Cameron Kincheloe, and Josh Papenberg all singled and walked.
“[Reinholtz] came in a tight spot with guys on base,” Skaer said. “He struggled with his command early on, worked through it and threw up some zeros and gave us a chance to walked it off there in the seventh.”
Carrollton ends their season at 26-9 and falls one game short of a sectional championship for the second time in three years.
“[Gibault had] too many good hitters that we held down for too long. Give them credit, they went out and won it, and their top of the order is tough. They proved it,” Carrollton head coach Jeff Krumwiede said. “Our guys did a great job representing our school and community to be able to make this a tight game at the end.”
Gibault struck first in the first inning with a two-run double by Reinholtz scoring Sweeny and Brantz making it 2-0. Carrollton quickly responded in the top of the second inning with back-to-back RBI singles by No. 8 and No. 9 hitters, Clay Schnettgoeke and Curtis Lake off Nick Weilbacher.
In the top of the fourth, Reinholtz replaced Weilbacher with two on and one out. He struck out Pohlman but proceeded to walk Gus Coonrod and Nathan Walker, which gave Carrollton a 3-2 lead.
Carrollton’s starting pitcher, Gabe Jones threw two straight scoreless frames but was replaced by Pohlman with runners on base with two outs. He struck out six batters, walked four, gave up two hits and two earned runs in his final high school game.
“He got some big outs in some key situations, and we continued to see his pitch count go up,” Krumwiede said. “A lot of stressful innings and we were able to escape all but the first one. They walked to get on, and we preached about that all year long. Other than that he did a nice job of getting himself out of jams, which is what he’s done all of his careers. He did a good job of getting us to the point where we could hand it over to Grant.”
Pohlman, who is Carrollton’s everyday starting catcher, came on in relief for Jones in the bottom of the fourth. After walking Austin Sweeny, he got Mark Brantz to fly out to center field with the bases loaded and then kept Gibault at bay by throwing two consecutive shutout innings.
Despite an early career setback, Krumwiede says Pohlman’s future as a Carrollton Hawk is bright and shouldn’t let this bring him down.
“He’s obviously disappointed. He’s gotta keep his head up because he’s the best catcher that I’ve seen the entire year in all levels,” Krumwiede said. “He’s going to be a tremendous pitcher as well. Because he had the injury earlier in the year, he didn’t get as many innings under his belt as we wanted, but he’s going to do some tremendous things over the next three years. He can’t let this put a bad stamp on what for him was a tremendous freshman season.”
Carrollton had a chance to add an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning.
A pair of singles by Jones and Hunter Flowers put two aboard with one out, but Brantz struck out the next two Carrollton batters.
Jones, Pohlman, and Settles each went 2-for-4, and Carrollton got nine hits off Gibault.
“Later on our four, five, six, seven got pretty good and got some big hits for us. I can’t say enough about the guys and how they improved,” Krumwiede said. “We improved as the year went on and that’s really what it’s all about. We were playing our best baseball at the end of the year. The Brussels (regional semifinal) game was a wakeup call on that Wednesday, and I thought they responded really well to that.”
Carrollton graduates Jones, Walker, and Lake who won over 100 games in their high school careers and exist one of the most winningest classes in program history. Although not getting many plaudits in his career, Krumwiede pointed out Curtis Lake’s hard work ethic and how much he improved this season.
“Good kids and going to be successful in life. It’s tough to let go of your seniors,” Krumwiede said. “Curtis was probably the most improved player we had this year. He’s been waiting in the wings for three years going to practice every day wondering if he would get an at-bat, maybe an inning on defense here or there. This year he did a great job.”
Gibault will play Illini Bluffs, who defeated Routt Catholic 11-7 today in the Springfield Super-Sectional on Monday at 4 p.m. at Lincoln Land Community College.
As for Carrollton, it’s the end of another successful season, but yet another tough pill to swallow, especially given the way this ended. In their five-year run of winning regional championships since 2014, they’ve yet to make it past the Sectional finals. This is the closest they’ve come, but with most of the starters coming back, the Hawks expect to continue their quest.
“This would’ve made some noise around the world of high school baseball in Illinois if we’d have pulled this one off, but give them credit. They went out and hit the ball and made things happen. They won it and our guys have nothing to be ashamed of,” Krumwiede said. “I hope it’s a motivational tool for next year for our underclassmen to try to do a little bit more than just get to Greenville. We got to figure out a way to get out of here. In my three years, it’s been the championship twice and the first game the other time. We’ve been close, but we need to find a way to go 2-0 at Greenville.”
