High school sports: Heuvelton gains charming win, recycles baseball history

May 28—The third time proved to be the charm for fourth seeded Heuvelton Central in Thursday's Section 10 Class D semi-final game at top seeded Lisbon.

Lisbon used late inning bursts to deny Heuvelton in two games in the NAC West season where the Knights (14-2) gained a second straight undefeated division title and Heuvelton (9-4) placed second at 7-3.

On Thursday the Bulldogs answered a 4-1 start by the Knights by methodically marching to a 9-5 victory where they left little to chance to be denied.

Coach Dave Steele's team drilled 15 hits, made no errors and capitalized on seven Lisbon errors to move into Tuesday's Section 10 Class D Championship game (Clarkson 5 p.m.) against fourth seeded Tupper Lake (13-4) which dropped second seeded Parishville-Hopkinton 4-1.

The Bulldogs also recycled a bit of baseball history in the all-sports rivalry between the two neighboring schools.

In 2019 when Lisbon reactivated its varsity team, a young Golden Knight squad dropped a top-seeded Heuvelton squad in the Class D title game and went on to reach the New York State Final 4. The Knights then went on to forge one of the best runs in school history winning four straight games against Heuvelton in their back to back undefeated NAC West titles after the COVID-19 pandemic closed down all spring sports in 2020.

"Heuvelton hit the ball extremely well, didn't make any mistakes and made some great defensive plays. We just picked a bad time to have one of those games in field. Trenton Williams suffered a knee injury against Morristown and couldn't play. He is a key player but we have the next man up mentality at Lisbon," said Lisbon Coach Dave Gravlin.

"Heuvelton has a very good team and they could definitely do what we did in 2019."

But first the Bulldogs have to get past a tough Tupper Lake team which placed third in the NAC East.

Heuvelton Coach Dave Steele says his team is looking to follow the same script that transpired on Thursday which sprouted intense practices following a nightmare finish in their second game against Lisbon.

"Our practices in the last two weeks have been very hard. We worked a lot on hitting and we cranked up the pitching machine and shot flyballs so the guys could work on making tough plays. Plays you have make to win a game like against a very good Lisbon team."

The Bulldogs received a full length diving catch by Brandon Pray in the fourth inning which helped stem the fast Lisbon start and a spectacular diving backhanded catch by Adam Calton at shortstop for the second out in the seventh inning.

Heuvelton also received explosive hitting leadership and a poised three-inning relief stint by Lucas Thornhill to save a win by Calton who went the first four innings. The offense was bookended by leadoff hitter Jed Crayford who went 4-4 with a double and scored three runs and Tristan Young who went 3-for-4 with a homerun in the eighth spot. Thornhill stroked three singles and drove in two runs.

"We hit the ball extremely well and Tristan Young really gave us a lift. He has been struggling lately but he went 3-4 with a homerun," said Coach Steele.

Calton doubled and singled, Brandon Pray doubled and Jakob Ladouceur, Lance Milsap, Tristyn Biller and Nate Mashaw all stroked singles.

Senior Ben LaRock and sophomore Lucas Gravlin finished outstanding seasons at plate in fitting fashion. LaRock drove in three runs with a single and a first inning homerun and Gravlin went 3-4 with a double. Lisbon's starting pitcher Griffin Walker also rapped a first inning homerun and singled.

"We are losing six outstanding seniors (Ben LaRock, Trent Williams, Dave Pirie, Jayden Williams, Griffin Walker, Storm Walker) but we have a good leadership core returning and some good players moving up," said Lisbon Coach Dave Gravlin.

"It was really a disappointing loss but these guys are tough."

Tupper Lake 4, P-H 1: Karter Kenniston went the distance for the win, striking out eight and walking one while scattering five hits. Connor Taillon started and took the loss after struggling to get out of the second inning where Tupper Lake tacked on its fourth run. Cody Yette held the Lumberjacks scoreless through to the end, fanning six and walking two while surrendering just two hits.

Griffin Shaheen had two hits and scored a run in the winning effort. Kenniston aided his own cause with a single and two runs scored.

For the Panthers (12-4), Lawson Snell led off the first inning with a triple and scored in front of a sacrifice fly by Kade Hayes, who later singled. Jon Snell poled two hits, including a double, while Avery Zenger singled to account for the other P-H hit.