Seeds don't matter in the playoffs

Sometimes teams enter the playoffs with a little something extra to play for. Top teams usually have the advantage, but.... when a lower seeded team's heart is broken and filled at the same time, you just don't know what to expect.

A few weeks back this Rocky Grove baseball team carried the body of their teammate, Nathan Luzier, off their baseball field at the end of his outdoor funeral. They wear his number over their heart.

That is not why they won Monday, but it is motivation. 

With Nathan's family in the stands, the team huddle before the game started and as they broke they yelled, "Family."

History won't say that Rocky Grove's win over Saegertown Monday was a triumph of baseball, but it was a bit of heart at times, guts at other times and... yes some sloppy ball. There cannot be enough sugar coating to change the fact that this game was long, a lot of pitches were thrown and not very many of them hit the strike zone.
​The officiating at times caused some head scratching too.

Saegertown looked solid for the first couple innings. Punching away and striking pay dirt. They were up three runs and Rocky Grove seemed to struggle getting solid aluminum on the leather. 

Then, in the fourth, they erased Saegertown's lead and added one. Saegertown responded to tie, but the Grove was anything but done. They added three more in the fifth and then six in the sixth. It looked like the game was in the bag.

​Not.

Saegertown scored four in the bottom of the sixth. Rocky Grove Coach Sanner told his team in a huddle before the start of the final inning that they shouldn't rest on their lead and go out to score more runs.  They managed to add one more.

Saegertown looked like they were going to go out quietly with two quick outs, but that last out was mighty tough to come by. Saegertown scored four and had the winning run on base when a grounder to short was fielded well and tossed to second to end the three-and-a-half-hour seven-inning game.

​Rocky Grove, the fourth seed, advances to take on Kennedy Catholic who defeated Cochranton earlier in the day.

They will play Wednesday.