COLBY — Allen Community College’s hopes of an extended playoff run took a big hit Wednesday.
A painful, heartbreaking hit.
After rallying to force extra innings, then forging ahead by a run in the top of the 12th, the Red Devils instead saw victory turn into defeat when Colby’s Blake Labuda blasted a two-run home run in the bottom of the inning.
Labuda’s blast was his third of the game as he drove in seven runs in the Trojans’ stunning 14-13 victory.
The loss comes in the first round of the Region VI playoffs, with ACC facing a win-or-go-home scenario at Colby Thursday. The Red Devils would then have to defeat Colby a second time on Friday in order to advance to the tournament’s next round in Manhattan starting Tuesday.
One would be hard-pressed to top the twists and turns from Wednesday’s slug-fest.
The Red Devils led 4-0 after half an inning, including Tanner Strickland’s two-run home run, but Colby immediately responded by scoring seven straight runs over the next five innings.
Labuda’s two-run shot in the fifth pushed the Trojans ahead 7-4, setting up a blistering back-and-forth for pretty much the rest of the game.
Josh Prinner’s RBI double, followed by Lucas Banta’s run-scoring single pulled Allen to within 7-6 in the top of the sixth.
Colby rallied for an insurance run in the bottom of the inning before ACC’s Levi Bennett smacked a solo shot for Allen in the seventh to pull the Red Devils within a run, 8-7.
Ayden Blachowicz drilled an RBI single in the top of the eight to tie the score, Rhett Yaggers doubled with two outs to drive in Blachowicz, and Sal Jacobo’s RBI single brought Yaggers home, and suddenly Allen led, 10-8.
The advantage didn’t last long. A pair of hit batters and two more walks — all with the bases loaded — propelled Colby back on top, 12-10, headed into the ninth.
But Allen didn’t go down quietly. Bennett reached on an error, Nathan Bach walked, and Prinner reached on an infield single to load the bases. Blachowicz walked on a 3-2 pitch to bring Bennett home before Strickland hit a sacrifice fly to center to knot the score at 12-12.
But back-to-back strikeouts ended the threat there.
The tenor settled, but only a little, through the 10th and part of the 11th.
Allen dodged a 747-sized bullet in the bottom of the 11th when Kade Douglas worked out of a bases-loaded, no out jab with consecutive strikeouts and a ground ball.
Christian Altamirano became the man of the hour in the top of the 12th, when he slammed a run-scoring double to score Gage Stark for a 13-12 lead.
