“Do You Believe In Miracles?” Shamrocks Walk Off Into District Championship
Commentator Al Michaels once said, “Do you believe in miracles?” when America upset the Soviet Union in the ice hockey rink.
Forty-five years later, on May 20, the same question was being asked by the crowd attending the Class 1 District 9 Semifinal in New Haven. The Shamrocks (9-8) needed a miracle, as their season was on the brink of being iced.
New Haven started ahead with two runs in the bottom of the third. But Community (13-8) rallied back, eventually tying the Shamrocks three apiece during the sixth inning. When the Trojans returned to bat, they seized a 4-3 lead, putting New Haven on the ropes.
The Shamrocks took the plate for one last time, with their season hanging in the balance. Michael McFerrin smoked a grounder to begin the bottom of the seventh, followed by Cole Nieman hammering a fly ball. After Ryan Steinbeck walked to first base, the bags were full with an out on the board.
Then Drew Gildehaus stood at the plate, resting his bat and the weight of the world on his shoulders. “I was pretty nervous before the at-bat, but then I stepped into the box and… I just felt calm,” he shared.
Gildehaus trusted in himself, knowing that the first pitch would be a fastball. He took a deep breath, saw what he predicted and lifted his team from the jaws of defeat. The freshman ripped a line drive deep to center field, sending McFerrin and Nieman home, as well as the Trojans.
The Shamrocks then rushed from the dugout onto the field and hugged Gildehaus for saving their season. With the 5-4 win, he punched New Haven’s first ticket to the district championship in seven years. Gildehaus described hitting the walk-off double as “like a dream” and an experience he will never forget.
Head Coach Austin Peirick could not have been any prouder, seeing his boys celebrate a victory that was years in the making. “Their reaction to that play says it all—how much this season has meant to them and how much they have taken it on themselves to do something different,” he remarked. “All of that emotion was to say that we’ve... started building something new, and not for them, for whoever’s coming next. You know, I’ve got five seniors who have lost a lot of baseball games... They want to leave something nicer than when they got here.”
Peirick believes the nail-biting finish will set “a really good foundation” for the program in the future. “I think it’s big for a lot of reasons, but not necessarily just because it’s a district win—it’s how we got the district win,” he explained. “[We’re] trying to rewrite the script on New Haven baseball and how we’re trying to retrain our mental capacity to understand that it’s the next play. You can’t worry about the last play; it’s what are you going to do next? And I don’t think you could epitomize or find a better example of that mantra than that inning. [A] brutal top of the 7th for us; the worst thing that could have happened—they scored on a passed ball. [Then] we come in; they get an out [and] we grind the next at-bats. A true freshman, Drew Gildehaus, steps up—boom—drives the ball in the gap; that’s it.”
Gildehaus was lights out in the district semifinal and led his team with three RBIs. The freshman batted 2-for-4 and punched it home during the third inning.
Steinbeck dominated with a run, a hit and a walk.
Reid Lueckenhoff and Anthony Groner both drove a runner home on an RBI.
Nieman went 2-for-3 at the plate and scored alongside McFerrin.
Evan Scheer crossed the dish in the bottom of the fourth.
Trevor Hinten hit 2-for-3, while Weston Hecktor and Jacob Gerdes each singled.
Hinten pitched a complete seven innings for the Shamrocks. He pounded seven Ks through the strike zone. The sophomore only gave up seven hits, three walks and two earned runs.