Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Jack Tierney was just being honest.

When a thunderstorm halted play on Tuesday night with Regina trailing West Branch 6-2 in the seventh inning of their Class 2A, Substate 5 quarterfinal there were at least a few in blue and gold that wondered if the Regals’ season was over.

“I’m sure there were some doubts,” Tierney said. “We always kept hope throughout the whole thing and we knew we were going to get our shot.”

Mother nature gave Regina its shot and Tierney and the Regals took full advantage.

After a 75-minute rain delay Regina scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to shock West Branch 7-6 in a wild game that took more than four hours to complete.

Tierney capped the comeback with a two-run single to left field that sent Regina (14-12) into the Substate 5 semifinal on Saturday at 7 p.m. against West Liberty (14-12).

“Obviously we weren’t playing our best at the start of the game but we knew we just had to lock it in,” Tierney said. “Once we got the opportunity to play we were going to take full advantage of it and play Regal baseball, the way we know how to play.”

A Regina lineup that scored just three runs in its final four regular season games was stymied early by West Branch starter Lucas Pierce who allowed three hits in four scoreless innings.

Regina had opportunities against Pierce, who walked two and hit three batters but left the bases loaded in the first and fourth innings and stranded nine through four innings.

Meanwhile, West Branch steadily built a lead scoring two runs in the first, one in the fifth and three more runs in the sixth on a two-run single by Quinn Hayden and an RBI single by Reese Trepanier.

Regina finally got a pair of runs in the sixth inning, both scoring on wild pitches by West Branch reliever Logan Foster Paulsen.

“The one thing that I have been preaching all year is resiliency,” Regina coach Steve Pacha said. “If you get punched make sure you punch back. It’s going to happen just make sure you fight back. I was just hoping it wouldn’t take a rain delay and seven innings.”

Then the rain came.

Teams were pulled off the field before the seventh inning as a strong thunderstorm approached the area.

The storm largely fizzled before hitting the area leaving the field playable after a 75-minute delay.

Once Regina returned to the field under a steady rain the Regals were a different team.

Henry Bottorf worked around a leadoff walk in the seventh to keep the scored 6-2 and the Regal offense immediately went to work.

Senior Christian Mills led off the seventh inning with a single to left that sparked the Regina rally.

“We’ve struggled the last week and we needed to steal one and honestly I felt like Christian Mills barreled up a ball and then we rolled,” Pacha said. “It’s been that way all year we’ve had a couple games where we haven’t had that guy get us going.”

Drew Streb followed with a one-out single and Jackson Naeve reached on an error that scored a run and loaded the bases for the top of the Regina order.

“As soon as Christian Mills got that hit and got that rally going I knew we had it,” Tierney said. “The whole season we have been hitting up and down the lineup, we’ve been scoring runs and we’ve been in a little slump the last few games but I knew once we got a few hits we were going to ride that train all the way home.”

Leadoff hitter Danny Gavin ripped a two-run double into the gap in right center that cut the lead to 6-5 with one out.

“After that first hit, in my head at least I didn’t think there was any way we were going to let this slip away,” Gavin said. “It just fired us up and we didn’t want to let anyone down.”

That brought up Tierney, the team leader in batting average, who lined the second pitch he saw from West Branch reliever Nolan Staker into left center field for a two-run, game-winning single.

Gavin scored the game-winning run ahead of the throw from West Branch center fielder Quinn Hayden.

“We were pretty quiet at the start, everyone was wondering if we were going to get to play, how the field was going to be but it got to a point where we said we were going to give it everything we’ve got no matter what,” Gavin said. “We can’t control the field or the weather of if we get to play but we knew we were going to give it everything we’ve got.”

West Branch              200  012  0  –  6    8  2

Regina                        000  002  5  –  7  10  4

W – Henry Bottorff                L – Logan Foster Paulsen

2B – ICR: Danny Gavin. WB: Reese Trepanier

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