The Trojans gave him an early answer.
Troy scored 10 runs in the first two innings, then relied on starting pitcher Jake McMurtry and its defense to oust Trinity 13-6 Friday night in a one-game Class 2A bi-district playoff game.
“We expected a battle and that’s what we got,” Sebesta said. “Our kids came to play. That’s all there is to it. That’s what you worry about when you take 10 days off, is whether they will show up to play or not, and they showed up to play tonight.”
Troy (16-9) advanced to the area round to play District 27-2A champion Danbury at 7:30 p.m. next Friday in Weimar. Trinity, which lost to eventual state champion Rogers in last year’s Region IV finals, finished 22-6.
Trailing 1-0 after the first half inning, the Trojans’ bats made a statement early.
Dylan Sebek singled to lead off the inning and Justin Gregory walked. Then Josh Fredrick stepped in and smacked an opposite-field three-run home run that snuck inside the foul pole down the right-field line to give Troy a 3-1 lead.
“That was big for his confidence and it set the tone that we weren’t going to give in to them,” Sebesta said. “That set the tone that we came to play and it picked us up at a time that was needed to be picked up.”
In the second, the Trojans scored seven times on five hits and two costly Trinity errors.
Jordan Hayes, who went 3-for-3 and reached base four times, led off the inning with a single. Ryan Dach’s single bounced off third base to score Hayes for a 4-1 lead. Gregory reached on a hard-hit ball to left-center to bring in Dach.
Fredrick grounded to second, but instead of taking the easy out second baseman Micah Hoevelman threw home and Gregory scored easily for a 5-1 lead.
Back-to-back singles by Zach Lynch and McMurtry and a walk to Andrew Hines followed by an error allowed Troy to stretch the lead to 10-1 after two innings.
McMurtry and the defense kept the Tigers at bay the rest of the way.
Trinity’s best effort came in the fifth. The Tigers had already scored three times and had the bases loaded, but McMurtry got a popup to shortstop and a grounder to first baseman Dach on which McMurtry raced over and covered for the final out.
“We tried to mix it up because we knew they were a great fastball-hitting team,” senior right-hander McMurtry (8-2) said about Trinity, which had every starter batting at least .348 entering Friday. “We started them off with curveballs and changeups, but after a while you just have to throw it up there and let your defense work and that’s what we did.”
Sebesta said his team’s ability to battle through pressure situations is a testament not only to his players but also to the challenge of playing a difficult District 25-2A schedule.
“Those guys starting to come back and it starting to be a pressure situation . . . we’re familiar with that,” Sebesta said. “They ended up playing well through that.”
In the sixth, third baseman Sebek made an outstanding defensive play. He dove to his right, got up and threw out the runner to end the inning.
McMurtry, Lynch and Gregory each had two hits.
McMurtry threw 153 pitches - including 90 through the third, fourth and fifth innings - but battled to help his team advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in three tries.
“The word team pretty much describes it,” McMurtry said about the 2008 team compared to his other three years. “This is the most team-like baseball team we’ve had. We’ve had some individuals that were pretty good but now we’re relying on each other."
cmeister@temple-telegram.com
