Unity baseball wins first regional title since 1993

May 21—GIBSON CITY — Tyler Henry turned immediately to the Unity dugout after safely reaching first base on a two-out single to left field in the third inning of Saturday's Class 2A regional championship game against Monticello.

The Rockets' freshman second baseman was in full-on celebration mode. Fists clenched at his sides. Yelling out in excitement.

The Unity baseball team had nothing going in the first two innings against Monticello starter Jack Buckalew. Three up, three down and repeat.

Henry's single wound up just the start of a two-out rally that flipped the game in the third-seeded Rockets' favor. Another rally in the fifth, with Henry scoring again, ended up being the winner in a 3-2 victory against the second-seeded Sages.

Then the real celebration started. Unity (25-8-1) had its first regional title in 30 years and a spot in next week's Decatur Sectional, with Eureka (30-2) waiting in a 5 p.m. Wednesday semifinal game at Workman Family Baseball Field on the Millikin University campus.

"We feel like we've got a really good baseball program here, and we'd won one regional in school history," Unity coach Tom Kimball said. "Getting over this hump, it means a lot for our baseball program. It's huge for us to finally get this because we've had some great teams.

"In our regional with Monticello and (St. Joseph-Ogden) always in the same regional, it's never going to be easy to win a regional. You're going to have to earn it. We beat a really quality team right there."

That 30 years had passed since Unity's last regional title in 1993 didn't escape the current Rockets. Multiple players — and coaches — cycled through to get their photo taken with the regional plaque.

"This is huge, man," Unity starting pitcher Brock Suding said. "Now future classes are going to know that we won, and I think we'll take off now."

Monticello (21-5) had the early advantage after Biniam Lienhart led off the bottom of the first inning with a single back up the middle. The Sages' second baseman advanced to second when Matt Swartz drew a walk and then flashed his speed to score from second on an infield single from Jacob Trusner.

Buckalew kept Unity bottled up in the first two innings, mixing a sharp-breaking offspeed offering with an overpowering fastball. The Monticello right-hander struck out six of the first eight batters he faced before Henry lined a 1-2 pitch into shallow left field for a two-out single. Easton Cunningham followed Henry's single with one of his own, and they both scored on a bloop double to left-center by Dylan Moore to give Unity a 2-1 lead.

"We haven't been hitting well against faster pitchers," Henry said. "I was just so excited. I was so pumped. It got us going, and we kept hitting."

Henry finished Saturday's game 2 for 2, with another single to left field in the top of the fifth setting up Cunningham to deliver the go-ahead RBI single to right a batter later after Monticello had tied the game at 2 in the fourth on an RBI triple by Ike Young. Henry reached base safely in all three of his at-bats after drawing a walk in the seventh inning.

"He's had a great freshman season," Kimball said of Henry. "To battle like he did against those quality pitchers was a good way to get that going. Especially that inning we needed to score. He got us started."

"It makes me feel really good that my coach has enough faith and trust in me to play," Henry added.

Henry and Cunningham spearheading the Unity offense put Suding in a more comfortable place. Kimball wanted three to four innings out of his junior right-hander. Suding gave the Rockets six.

"Brock put us in position to win that game," Kimball said. "When he commands it and can throw his curveball for a strike, he's got good enough velocity that can get outs. That's what he does. He grinds it out when he's on the mound, and he manned up there late in the game."

Suding finished with one run allowed on six hits and four walks to go with seven strikeouts. His last inning was his best, as he set the Sages down in order in the bottom of the sixth before giving way to Emmerson Bailey in the seventh for the save.

"I've had a rough season pitching-wise," Suding said. "I knew it was going to be a tough game, and I wanted to stick it to them. ... A couple 3-2 (counts) I threw curveball, and having that was nice. They're going to expect fastball, and I came with curve and they weren't expecting it."

Monticello managed baserunners in every inning but the sixth, but the Sages weren't able to capitalize beyond single runs in the first and fourth innings. Trusner finished 2 of 3 with a pair of singles, and Eli Craft was also 2 of 3 and scored on Young's RBI triple.

"I think we may have been guessing too much in the box, and (Suding) made good pitches," Monticello coach Chris Jones said. "We got stagnant. We've often done that all year. Brock threw the ball well. I just tip my hat to him."