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Greenville baseball rides sturdy pitcher to advance to regional final

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By John Cummings, Contributing Writer 7:59 PM Friday, May 27, 2011

XENIA — Greenville High School senior Matt Orth knew his pitch count was getting high and that each pitch had to be the right one, but instead of dwelling on the thought, it fired him up even more.

“The hair on the back of my neck stood up the entire seventh inning,” Orth said after pitching the Green Wave to 13-13 on the season with a 4-1 win over Tippecanoe in a Division II regional semifinal at Athletes in Action on Friday. “My body was getting worn out, but situations like that pump you up.

“It was just batter after batter. ... Mentally it was the toughest game I have ever played in. Just by a hair they didn’t score a couple of times and keeping that focus mentally wasn’t easy.”

Orth’s defense, though, was equal to the task, leaving nine Red Devil runners on the bases behind a combination of solid defense and web gem defense.

“It was just one of those games,” Tippecanoe coach Bruce Cahill said after his squad finished 24-5. “We knew Matt was a good pitcher and a competitor. It is one thing to get runners on base, but a good pitcher shuts you down after that, and he did.”

Greenville got the first big hit of the night when Jacob Burk led off the second inning with a towering home run over the left field fence for a 1-0 lead. The Green Wave added two in the top of the fifth on RBI singles by Bailey Haworth and Lukus Krueger to take a 3-0 lead.

“It was important to get that jump start,” Burk said. “When we take the lead early, Matty (Orth) is hard to beat, and we were able to get it done today.”

Tipp got its lone run in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double by Braden Price. The Red Devils went in order in the seventh.

Greenville will play for a spot in the state semifinals at 6 p.m. today at AIA.

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