By T. Scott Boatright
ZWOLLE — So close, yet so far away.
But that doesn’t dampen an outstanding if not unlikely season.
Sometimes a baseball game can come down to one or two plays, and that was the feeling 17th-seeded Simsboro walked away with after falling 3-2 at 16th-seed Zwolle Thursday in first-round action of the Louisiana Class B State Playoffs.
The Tigers jumped on top 1-0 in the top of the second, but Zwolle took its first lead of the contest in the fourth by plating a pair of runs.
Simsboro, which tied the contest with a run in the top of the seventh inning, outhit the Hawks 5-4, but didn’t get enough when the Tigers needed them most, as Zwolle plated the game winner in the bottom half of the stanza for the walk-off win.
“We just didn’t come through when we needed to,” said Simsboro coach Scott Hiers. “There were times earlier in the game we had a few (scoring) opportunities but hit into a double play a couple of times.
“It was a solid game. Both teams played well. Both pitchers pitched well. We just didn’t take enough advantage of our chances. It’s just one of those things.”
Max Lee led the Tigers at the plate with a 2-for-3 batting performance with one run batted in while Noah Thomas accounted for Simsboro’s other RBI.
Hiers said he let the team know how proud he was of their season during their postgame talk.
“I told them I was really proud of them and the way they fought through the season having lost (their only senior and top player Hayden) Rabo early on in the season,” Hiers said. “They still won 15 games and made it to the playoffs and gave themselves a chance to win a playoff game. So I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
So proud that Hiers is already thinking about next year.
“What I’m already thinking about before getting home is next season,” Hiers said. “We’ll be a year bigger. A year stronger. The only senior I had this season was Rabo and we played 90% of the season without him.
“So I told them Monday, it’s time to go back to work. That’s our focus now.”
