North-Linn stuns No. 3 Lisbon in district final

LISBON - The opponent's record and season statistics were imposing, to say the least. But this wasn't a season, only one game.

And the North-Linn Lynx owned that game.

They grabbed an early lead, withstood a middle-inning rally and added on late to take out third-ranked Lisbon, 9-2, in a Class 1A district final last night. North-Linn (33-10) takes on Jesup (21-12) in a substate final Tuesday night at Manchester.

'Most people are going to look at this as a big upset,” North-Linn Coach Travis Griffith said. 'But we've talked about it the last couple of days that ‘we're coming in expecting to win.' We know what they can do, but when we play our baseball, the pitchers that we have … This was an upset on paper, yes.

'But I came in expecting to win.”

'Our defense is outstanding,” catcher Jacob Rawson said. 'We come to play, and teams aren't going to score a whole lot of runs on us, with our pitching. Sometimes our offense is a little bit lacking, but we came out tonight and really pounded them.”

The Lynx have never been to the state baseball tournament.

The Lions, who hit over .400 as a team and averaged over 11 runs a game, swept a doubleheader from North-Linn in the regular season, but it's all about timing.

'We were composed,” Griffith said. ”They came back and made it 3-2, then we scored three runs right away there, and I thought (Lisbon) gave up a little bit then. Their shoulders were shrugging down.”

'I knew coming in that they were a good hitting team,” said North-Linn's freshman Ryan Miller, who pitched the first four innings and got the win. 'I just wanted to throw strikes. I knew my defense would help me out.”

Lisbon (32-3) got two back in the fourth. Starting pitcher Ryan Miller walked the bases loaded and allowed a two-out, two-run double down the third-base line to Colton Krob. But he stranded the tying run at third and go-ahead run at second, getting Brett Givens on a routine fly to center.

Not only were Lisbon's defensive miscues telltale in this one, so was the lack of a clutch hit. The Lions left eight men on in scoring position the first five innings.

Contrarily, North-Linn scored three retaliatory runs in the fifth, including back-to-back sacrifice flies from Brad Pflughaupt and Sean Boardman.

The Lynx added three more runs in the sixth, including a two-run Jake Hilmer double.

He's just an eighth-grader, by the way, and his team's best pitcher.

He relieved Miller in the fifth and closed out the game, striking out seven.

'Coach Griff asked me before the game how I was feeling, and I told him good,” Hilmer said. 'I actually wanted to start, but he wouldn't left me.”

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