Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – Lots of baseball coaches talk about having confidence in every hitter in the lineup.

Third year Regina coach Jeff Pacha does more than just talk about his faith in every member of his lineup, he proves it with the way he coaches.

So exactly how much trust does the third-year Regina skipper have in the bottom of his lineup?

As the fifth inning of Monday’s Class 2A state quarterfinal against second-ranked Treynor showed, plenty.

With Regina leading 3-0 Trent Hoogerwerf and Ryne Schooley started the fifth with back-to-back singles.

Pacha sensed a chance to put the game away.

With home run and RBI leader Blake Berns at the plate Pacha called for a bunt which Berns put down perfectly to move the runners to second and third.

Sixth-place hitter promptly followed with a two-run single that gave Regina a 5-0 lead.

“We really do have confidence in every person that goes up there,” Pacha said. “That particular decision speaks to the bottom of our order and how competitive they have been and how much they have improved and how important they know that their role is.”

Pacha isn’t the only person confident in the bottom of the Regina order.

That confidence has spread to everyone in a Regal uniform and with good reason.

The final four batters in the Regina lineup combined for four of the team’s nine hits on Monday to go with two runs and four RBI.

“One through nine I have confidence in everyone that they can hit the ball hard,” Regina junior Mitch Gahan said. “We have a lot of people that can come up with big hits.”

The two-run single by Gahan in the fifth inning was just the latest in a number of big hits for the bottom half of the Regal batting order.

Eighth-place hitter Nick Brandt had a RBI single in a two-run Regina second inning and combined with Gahan to drive in four of Regina’s five runs in the Regals’ first state tournament win since 1994 on Monday.

“I think everybody just has so much confidence in each other,” Brandt said. “One through nine it’s just all the work we have put in it’s paying off.”

The bottom of the order production on Monday is nothing new for Regina.

Seven, eight and nine hitters Hunter Liebermann, Brandt and Evan Suchomel combined for five hits, five runs and four RBI in an 11-7 substate final upset of No. 3 Wilton last week.

Liebermann, a junior first baseman had a single and scored a run in Monday’s win.

“One through nine everybody can hit the ball, everybody can produce runs everybody can run the bases,” Liebermann said. “I trust every single person in the lineup. Even some of the guys on the bench can come up in big situations and do things.”

In four postseason wins the bottom four batters in the Regina order are hitting .396 with 15 runs and 11 RBI.

“The bottom of our order has been our sparkplug for the postseason so far,” Pacha said. “That has been huge.”