Heading into regionals, Sinclair completed their season with a 47-9 record, the most wins the Pride have had in their school history.
Sophomore Jimmy White led the team in almost all offensive categories while Daniel Sexton, Alex Anders, and Mitch Asman dominated all season with their starting pitching with a combined 26-4 record and a 2.75 ERA. A combination of quality starts and efficient pitching made the Tartan Pride a dynamic team and a well-oiled winning machine.
Unfortunately, having the best record in school history does not always translate to a regional championship. The Pride started out with Henry Ford CC, who had the best pitcher in the whole tournament, according to Coach Dintaman. The Pride scored their first run on an error and added on two runs as they won in a close 3-0 victory with a strong outing from Sexton.
“We really didn’t play very well. I don’t think it was nerves. We tried to force some things a little bit. We took advantage from their mistakes,” said Coach Dintaman.
The game was filled with intense moments where Sinclair needed to make a pitch or get a ball in play and they did just enough to secure their victory and move on.
In the next round, Sinclair played Owens for the ninth time this season. Just like the previous eight times, they defeated Owens. Anders provided seven innings of scoreless baseball and only allowed one hit. The Pride put up 11 hits and won on 8-1 to move on to the next round.
“Offensively we had some better bats that game, and again, they made some mistakes. That is kind of their thing for the year,” said Dintaman.
The next game was a rematch against Kellogg CC, who they had played previously in a four game series in the regular season. In that series, Sinclair won three of four with both strong offense and good pitching. This time around was different though, as Kellogg put up 14 runs, only nine of them being earned runs.
It was not a one and done tournament, so Sinclair got knocked into the loser’s bracket. Since they won their first two games, they just had to win one more to get into the finals. For the tenth time in the season, they played Owens again.
“It is hard to beat someone 10 times, but we found a way. Brody Basilone was awesome. Probably his best start of the year. We actually ended up run ruling them so we ended up saving on pitching as well,” said Dintaman.
After beating Owens, it set up a rematch with Kellogg CC, who they struggled with just a couple games prior. Dintaman said if there was some sort of overconfidence the team might have had in the first game, considering they did handle them very well in the regular season.
“No, I think it could happen, but they definitely were confident they could get it done. We beat teams twice in one day all the time,” said Dintaman.
Johnny Crawford was handed the ball to lead the team to a victory over Kellogg and provided five and 1/3 innings with four strike outs, four walks, four hits, while giving up two runs in a losing effort where the offense could not get anything going. The Pride had just six hits through nine innings and could only muster one run out of it and were sent packing.
“Their first run was on a fluke. The batter called time and stepped out of the box, but stepped back in as the ball was coming in and hit it off the scoreboard. Johnny was flustered by it, he thought the kid was calling time and just threw a high fastball and got out of control. Sexton came in on two days rest and was throwing harder than he did in his start. He ended up giving up a single off his hand that ended up being the game winner,” said Dintaman.
Throughout the last inning, Dintaman described the dug-out as upbeat and positive. They never got down and tried to keep the spirits up for some kind of late rally.
Obviously, this was tough for the team. Many of the starting pitcher and offensive players on the team are leaving to bigger schools or pursuing their degree at a university, so some big shoes will have to be filled to try to repeat the kind of success this year’s team had.
Sinclair made it to the regional final before back in 2009. When asked to compare the two finals, Dintaman said the finals in 2009 was like they weren’t even supposed to be there. Their pitching was very thin and it was more of a “hope and a prayer” thing.
Overall, it was an incredibly exciting season with the amount of offense and quality pitching over the course of the games. Alec Turner followed Jimmy White in almost all offensive stats so he should be an exciting player to keep an eye on. Signings have already begun to help fill in those big shoes that must be filled to repeat this year’s success and to hopefully make it out of regional. Coach Dintaman has had a lot of success with Sinclair, and as long as he is the coach, there is a chance.
Matt Summers
Sports Editor