The Stateliners had their chances for another comeback win but dropped a 4-3 decision.
The way the Phillipsburg baseball team has been playing of late, it looked to be right where it wanted heading into the final three innings of Sunday’s Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex semifinal, tied with High Point 3-3.
And even after the Stateliners allowed the go-ahead run in the top of the sixth inning, they still set their sights on a dramatic comeback win that has become their trademark over the last two weeks.
Their fountain of magic, though, ran dry as they left a total of 10 runners on base and fell to High Point 4-3 at a chilly and wet Phillipsburg Athletic Complex.
“We’ve been on a good run lately and we’ve been having some dramatic wins, a couple walkoffs, couple last at-bat wins. It just didn’t happen today,” Stateliners head coach Dylan Sapir said. “We got a little spoiled there with some of our wins. We all expected to do it again. You gotta credit those guys (High Point).”
The seventh-seeded Wildcats (11-2) advanced to their first Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex final in program history next Saturday against No. 1 Pope John (a 10-0 winner over Newton) back at Phillipsburg.
“Before the year, we set out a couple goals for ourselves: we want to hang a banner of some kind,” High Point head coach Ryan Ellis said. “This is a big step for us. … To come in here and beat a really good team gives us confidence.”
The No. 3 Stateliners (10-6), who were chasing their first county title since 2012, will turn their attention back to the final weeks of the regular season while the state playoffs and next Saturday’s showdown with Easton (7 p.m., Hackett Park) loom.
“We got some big goals left,” Sapir said.
Over its last six games entering Sunday, five of which were wins, Phillipsburg had recorded a pair of walk-off wins — including a 10-9 rally over Hunterdon Central in last week’s quarterfinals — and two more road wins when it scored the go-ahead runs in the final inning.
But on Sunday, the Stateliners were left ruing their chances. Zac Troxell, who played hero in two of those last-inning wins, grounded out to end the game with the tying run (Alex Lahey, 2-for-4) standing on second base. And in the sixth inning, No. 3 hitter Jason Hawk stranded the tying runner on third base with another groundout.
“We talk about it, those are the two guys we want up to win a game, Hawk or Troxell,” Sapir said. “They’ve been doing it for two or three weeks now and it just didn’t happen today.”
Phillipsburg also had runners on first and second with one out in the fifth and couldn’t score, and earlier had the bases loaded in the second inning with one out but could only push across one run.
Part of the problem was Sam Armstrong, High Point’s ace, who was able to work out of jams all day. The sophomore no-hit Warren Hills and stifled Voorhees with a three-hitter in the Wildcats’ last two tournament games before Sunday.
“Sam is a great pitcher,” Ellis said. “He has really battled day in and day out. Today, he wasn’t at his best, he was a little under the weather, but he really came up (big) in the end doing what he’s supposed to do. He located his pitches, didn’t have his best, but he showed better than his age being only a sophomore and coming out as a dominant player.”
The Stateliners were encouraged after they pushed Armstrong’s pitch count to 48 after two innings, but the righty settled in enough to last six innings. Bryan Franko, a hard-throwing righty who drove in the game-winning run on a sinking liner to left field in the sixth inning, pitched the seventh to secure the save.
“We knew their starter (Armstrong) was good coming into it and we knew they weren’t going to give us the game,” Sapir said.
Phillipsburg’s own starter, Tyler Diefenbach, also found his groove as the game went on. After allowing a pair of runs in the first inning, the junior zoned in and went the distance, striking out nine and walking just one. The final two runs he allowed were unearned as errors came back to hurt.
“(Diefenbach) locked in and made some pretty good adjustments on his own,” Sapir said. “… We had two of our errors leading to (two) of their runs. It’s going to happen. We’re not going to play perfect.
“If we play perfect, we win, but most teams can say that every day.”
Greg Joyce may be reached at gjoyce@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @GJoyce9. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.