Vinton-Shellsburg ousts Williamsburg in 3A substate baseball final

WILLIAMSBURG - The Vinton-Shellsburg baseball team has Williamsburg's number in the postseason.

The Vikings and Raiders have met up the last two seasons in the Class 3A playoffs with Vinton-Shellsburg scoring five late-inning runs to defeat the Raiders in the first round last year.

This season, the Vikings didn't need a comeback.

Vinton-Shellsburg took the lead in the fourth inning and ended Williamsburg's season again with a 5-3 victory in the Class 3A Substate 5 championship game to earn a trip to the state tournament for the first time since 2009.

Vinton-Shellsburg will take on top-seeded Waverly-Shell Rock at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Principal Park in Des Moines.

'It's not that we have Williamsburg's number, we just believe in the process and that's to get great pitching, play good defense and we got a few timely hits,” Vinton-Shellsburg coach Jim Stuve said. 'The other key is these guys are resilient and they are confident.”

The Vikings' (24-16) win comes 16 days after Williamsburg (26-12) outscored Vinton-Shellsburg 18-3 in a doubleheader sweep.

It was a more 'confident” Vinton-Shellsburg team on the field on Wednesday, though.

'Ultimately, what matters most is this game right here,” Struve said. 'I don't know if it's flipping a switch or anything, but it's about getting locked in and it boils down to confidence.”

Scottie Wirth was confident on the mound, too. After Williamsburg tagged him for two runs on three hits in the first inning, Wirth held the Raiders to one run on two hits in the next five frames.

'At the beginning I kept my pitches up and that's how they scored the first two runs,” Wirth said. 'After that, I kept the ball down and I kept getting ground balls and the defense went to work for me.”

Tyler Rippel pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the save.

The Vikings took their first lead in the second inning after benefiting from three Williamsburg errors, which Vinton-Shellsburg scored three runs on.

Williamsburg made five errors total in the contest.

'(The Vikings) played a good ballgame and they made less mistakes than us,” Williamsburg coach Ben Grier said. 'We didn't really make the plays we should've made and I think if we make the plays we should've made, we win the game.”

Williamsburg tied the game in the third on an error, the Vikings broke the tie with a run in the fourth and an insurance run in the seventh.

Tanner Davis was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI for the Vikings and Will Edwards and Jordan Womochil each drove in a run.