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Campbell: game-tying RBI single at plate, winning pitcher in relief
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Only the ice bucket bath while doing the postgame interview could cool off Rochester baseball player Jake Seuferer.
Seuferer, a catcher, clubbed a walk-off RBI double to deep center field to give the Zebras a 3-2 win over Peru at Bob Copeland Field Monday and give Rochester the TRC title outright.
Rochester, who moved up from No. 7 to No. 6 in the Class 2A poll earlier in the day, improved to 16-5 overall and 8-0 in the TRC.
Rochester had already clinched a share of the TRC coming into the game. Tippecanoe Valley and Whitko were hoping to share it.
Hunter Campbell pitched 1 ⅔ hitless innings of relief and earned the win. He walked none and struck out one and needed to throw only 10 pitches to get five outs. Campbell also had a game-tying RBI single in the fourth.
Campbell relieved Tanner Reinartz, who worked 5 ⅓ innings and allowed three hits and two unearned runs. He walked none, hit two batters and struck out six.
Peru reliever Ian Potts allowed a one-out single to Carson Paulik in the bottom of the seventh but then picked Paulik off first. Reinartz then doubled to left, and Zakk Parks came into pinch-run.
Brayden Zink, who opened the scoring with an RBI single in the first, was intentionally walked, and Seuferer then hit his drive to deep center. Parks, running on contact with two outs, scored easily.
“I felt great,” Seuferer said, just moments before his ice bath. “I definitely wasn’t trying to do that. I was more trying to get a line drive and get a runner in.”
Seuferer’s game-winning RBI was evidence of how much he embraces big moments.
“I know Zink wanted that moment,” Rochester coach Cory Good said. “He’s been a huge, two-out RBI guy for us this year, but Jake Seuferer was ready to go. He wanted that moment too. He got kind of angry just with a little collision at home. Sometimes it brings the best out of people, and other times it brings the worst out of people. But Jake was ready to go, and he wanted that moment, and he took care of business.”
Rochester won the TRC for the first time since sharing the title with Southwood in 2019. The 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic, and Rochester finished second behind Southwood in 2021 and second behind Wabash last year.
Rochester also beat Peru 6-2 on April 8 at Northwestern High School in the Howard County Invitational title game.
Rochester had won their previous seven TRC games by a combined score of 92-6, and five of the games had been decided by 10-run rule. But the Zebras were also coming off a 5-4 loss to Fairfield, a 19-win Class 3A team, on Saturday.
Peru scored twice in the second on a Rochester throwing error after a sacrifice bunt.
“Those five losses by a couple runs here or there, a tight game like this, those are huge,” Good said. “Those are the things that we’ve got to be in to get us ready for a postseason run. It was nice to see us compete and battle and have to work hard for seven innings tonight.”
Seuferer and Paulik had two hits each to lead Rochester’s seven-hit attack.
Rochester 3, Peru 2
Peru 020 000 0 – 2 3 1
Rochester 100 100 1 – 3 7 3
WP – Hunter Campbell (1 ⅔ IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K)
LP – Ian Potts (1 ⅔ IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K)
2B – Jake Seuferer (RHS), Tanner Reinartz (RHS)
