Mount Pulaski clinches Regional Championship
on a Walk-Off

[September 22, 2021] Monday afternoon at Veterans Park in Mount Pulaski featured the Bruins versus the Bruins as the hosts welcomed Springfield Blessed Sacrament to town with a regional championship at stake.

Seven nerve-wracking innings later it was the Mount Pulaski Bruins winning 3-2 on a walk-off thanks to the timely hitting and no fear baserunning of cousins Eric Cooper and Franklin Wade.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning and the score tied 2-2, Cooper stepped to the plate. Down to his final strike, Cooper crushed the 1-2 count inside the right field line and ran like the wind. He was standing on third base when Wade stepped into the batter’s box. Wade smashed the first pitch down the third base line and the third baseman could not handle it. By the time the third baseman came up
with the ball, Cooper had crossed home plate with the game-winning run. The visiting Bruin third baseman
just left the ball on the field by the third base bag and walked towards the dugout as the Mount Pulaski Bruins began their celebration of the Class 1A
Regional Championship.

The Bruins took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on an inside the park home run by Luke Martin. Martin crushed a 2-2 count for a line drive to left field that rolled all the way to the fence.

Blessed Sacrament took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second inning.

In the bottom of the second inning, Mount Pulaski loaded the bases on walks to Clay Leonard and Carter
Clark and a single by Aaron Kuznik. Clark would be the only runner to score. He raced home on a fielder’s
choice to tie the game 2-2.

It would be a very intense pitcher’s duel over the next four innings, with both teams seeing very little action on the base paths. Mount Pulaski’s starting pitcher, Luke Martin, recorded seven strikeouts over the first five innings. Kuznik pitched a scoreless sixth inning in relief of Martin. Kuznik took the mound in the seventh inning for Mount Pulaski and with two runners aboard and two outs, Martin re-entered the game. Martin struck out the final batter and that set the stage for the thrilling walk-off in the bottom of
the seventh inning.

After the hard-fought win, Mount Pulaski head coach Troy Burgard was extremely proud of his team and
the way every player battled until the end. He explained in detail the work of his eighth-grade starting pitcher, Luke Martin, who finished his day’s
work with eight strikeouts and just one hit and one earned run allowed.

"Luke Martin battled on the mound all day,” said Burgard. “He didn’t have his best stuff in the second inning and ran up the pitch count. That kind of altered our plans later on in the game. We were
hoping he could go as deep into the game as he could and maybe re-enter him to get the last few outs. It worked out that he actually did get the last out in the field.”

Bruins defeat Blessed Sacrament 3-2

Martin had thrown 89 pitches when he exited the mound in the fifth inning. According to the rule as interpreted by Burgard, a pitcher can re-enter the
game at 89 pitches and start and finish one more batter. That’s exactly what Martin did in the top of the seventh inning to keep the 2-2 game intact.

“He was at 89 pitches so we brought him back when we had the biggest pressure situation and it worked
out. Luke had no warmup pitches when he got back on the mound. There was never a doubt in his mind that he was going to get that last out,” said Burgard.

“These guys are all great competitors,” continued Burgard. “The result of the game speaks for itself. The two-out hit by Franklin Wade was huge. Eric
Cooper hit that triple and luckily he didn’t listen to his coach and he ran through the stop sign rounding second and he went to third. As it turned out, the ball didn’t leave the infield and he was able to score from third so it was a good thing he didn’t listen to me.”

While Martin picked up the win for Mount Pulaski, the work of Aaron Kuznik on the mound cannot go
unnoticed. Kuznik tossed an inning and two-thirds and struck out one batter, while holding the visiting Bruins scoreless.

Mount Pulaski had five hits in the game. Cooper, Wade, Martin, Kuznik and Tucker Fitzpatrick each had hits for the Bruins.

Mount Pulaski will play for the Sectional Championship on Saturday versus Christ the King. The game will start at 11 a.m. at Alumni Field in Jacksonville.

The winner earns a trip to the state tournament.

Congratulations and GO BRUINS!

[Teena Lowery]

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