Cornerstone juniors fall 4-3 to Waverly "A"

The York Cornerstone Junior Blue and Waverly “A” played a game that went down to the wire early Thursday afternoon at Levitt Stadium.
The opponent did half of their damage in the top of the first inning when, with two outs in the frame, Waverly’s Bret Sales hit a fly ball to the outfield that was misplayed into a two-RBI double.
In the second inning, Waverly took advantage of a York error at the beginning of the inning to add their third run of the game and take a 3-0 lead. After that, York hurler Kirk Buetow caught fire. Over a stretch from the top of the second through the sixth inning, Buetow retired 15 of 17 Waverly batters.
“Their hitting at first kind of caught us off guard,” head coach Matt Kern said. “We really started changing the pitches up and Kirk did a great job of mixing his pitches after that first half inning.”
York scored their first run of the game in the bottom of the second. Brady Miller led off the inning with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. With nobody out, Kern put on a safety-squeeze with Drew Danielson at the plate. The squeeze worked perfectly and got York on the board and Danielson on base, as he reached first with a single on the play.
In the fourth, a leadoff single from Jake Spanjers led to another York run as he would come in to score on a throwing error by the Waverly catcher. In the fifth York tied things up at three as Bret Gardner came home when Matt Hansen stroked a double to the gap in left-center field. Through six innings, things were all knotted up.
“We kind of nickeled and dimed runs,” Kern said. “That’s kind of how we play, that’s how we get after. We did a great job of fighting back and it put us in a position to win.”
In the top of the seventh, Waverly led off the inning with back to back hits, plating their fourth run of the game and giving them a one-run lead. Buetow was able to keep the opponent from scoring again and keep things tight going into the home half of the seventh.
With one out, Nathan Walz singled to left field. After a wild pitch, Walz was in scoring position for York with just one down. But it wasn’t meant to be for the Blue. After a strikeout and a groundout, York had lost the tight contest, 4-3.
“It was a great baseball game,” Kern said. “When you can come to the ballpark and play a 4-3 baseball game in an hour and a half that’s great baseball. We don’t want to lose, obviously, but it was a great game.”
Waverly advanced their record to 16-2 on the season with the victory. With their Sunday doubleheader at David City being canceled, the 13-6 juniors next scheduled game is Wednesday night at Valparaiso.