Garbig’s double in 7th sends Perrysburg to state finals

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Matt Garbig hits a game
wining walk off double to defeat Willoughby South. (Photos: Andrew Weber/Sentinel-Tribune)

COLUMBUS —
Matt
Garbig was the hitter Willoughby South wanted at the plate when the game was on the line Thursday
morning.
The Perrysburg High School senior made the Rebels pay for their decision.
Garbig lined a three-run double with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Yellow
Jackets a 4-3 victory in the semifinals of the Division I state baseball tournament at Huntington Park.

The Yellow Jackets, ranked fifth in the state and 26-3 overall, will face Liberty Township Lakota East
(23-7) for the state championship Saturday morning at 10. West was a 7-2 winner over Grove City (22-11)
in Thursday’s second game. South finished 25-6. PHOTO
GALLERY

Garbig — on his 19th birthday — hit a 1-0 fastball into the right-center field gap to easily score Kevin
Schenk, Tony Bojanowski and Alec Schmenk standing up. The Yellow Jackets then piled on Garbig in a wild
celebration between the mound and second base.
“I got a good pitch that I liked and it popped off my bat pretty good,” Garbig said. “It’s the best
feeling in the world.”
South coach Steve Norris decided to gamble when he intentionally walked Schmenk to load the bases and set
up the double play and a force at any base. Conventional baseball wisdom says teams should never put the
winning run on base with an intentional walk.
Garbig has struggled most of the season offensively, entering the week with a .250 batting average and 14
runs batted in. However, the right-hand hitter crushed a three-run home run Saturday during the Yellow
Jackets’ 9-2 regional championship win over Strongsville.
Garbig still isn’t 100 percent healthy after having knee surgery in September to repair a summer baseball
injury. He easily could have had a triple on the winning hit, but stopped at second.
“I would do it,” Perrysburg coach Dave Hall said of the intentional walk. “If they’ve got the scouting
report I would’ve had on us, he’s a .240 hitter. He’s normally up there to bunt, to hit-and-run and to
put balls on the ground. He’s not up there to drive in runs. I would have done the same thing.”
Trailing 3-1 entering the bottom of the seventh, pinch-hitter Matt Slocum walked on five pitches with one
out.
After Schenk returned to run for Slocum, freshman pinch-hitter Mark Delas smashed a ground-rule double to
deep center field, the ball hitting the warning track on the fly and bouncing over the 10-foot high
fence.
That sent Schenk to third and Tony Bojanowski ran for Delas. Schmenk then was intentionally walked to
bring Garbig to the plate.
Schmenk, who is Perrysburg’s leadoff hitter, was 2-for-3 in the game to raise his average to .340.
Schmenk, in scoring the winning run on a full sprint from first base, nearly caught Bojanowski as Schmenk
scored only a brief moment or so after Bojnowski.
“This was unbelievable. When I hit home plate we just went ballistic,” Schmenk said. “As soon as I saw
the ball hit the bat, I knew I was going to score.”
After stranding a runner at third in the second and third innings, Perrysburg closed within 3-1 in the
fifth on Hunter Smith’s homer onto Nationwide Boulevard, which runs directly behind the right-field
fence.
South pitcher Cameron Knott held Perrysburg to one run on five hits over the first six innings. He tired
in the seventh, and the Yellow Jackets capitalized against his fastball.
The first pitch to Garbig was in the dirt, low and away. He then got a fastball down the middle.
“I told him, ‘You’ve dreamed about this,’” Hall said of his conversation with Garbig before the at-bat as
Norris went to the mound to talk to Knott. “He said, Yes I have,’ and I said, ‘Get it done.’”
“I knew he wasn’t going to throw me any curveballs,” Garbig said. “I just waited on a good fastball.”

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