Ceballos' bomb keeps Sterling ticking

GAME 9

After kissing the sky, Gerald Ceballos' final home run returned from its orbit.

It took a little longer for him to come down from Cloud 9.

The Sterling slugger celebrated his second homer of the day with a series of seemingly choreographed high-fives with teammates upon returning to home plate. And why not? His two-run shot gave his team a 9-7 lead in the final inning.

That proved the final score as Sterling, thanks to its hard-swinging catcher, prevailed over the Master's College in an elimination game Monday.

Returning to Harris Field today, Sterling will face FAULKNER/LCSC LOSER at 3 p.m. when the Avista NAIA World Series continues.

"I knew he was going to start with a cutter," Ceballos said of the game-winner.

And his hunch paid off.

He held his pose as the ball sailed beyond the left-field wall for the final difference, though his team still had to protect its lead.

"I guess you wouldn't have it any other way in an elimination game," Sterling coach Adrian Dinkel said of the drama that ensued when his team balked a runner to second, with the tying run at the plate.

That provided a gut check for Sterling hurler Kade Wagner, one game removed from getting knocked around by Tennessee Wesleyan.

But needing just one out to end the game, he returned to his favorite weapon: the changeup.

"It's been my best pitch my whole life," said Wagner, who required seven offerings to finally conclude the ninth on a whiff, one of three strikeouts he delivered.

"To ride that emotional roller coaster," Dinkel added, "was fun."

This game had everything fans consider fun: spectacles (a double-steal of home plate Sterling pulled off), highlight-reel hits (the teams evenly combined for four homers) and even a trick shot, as Ceballos' first homer landed in a garbage bin.

That left-field shot, before The Master's even got to bat, gave Sterling a 3-0 lead.

But credit the Mustangs, Dinkel said: they never gave up and "they just do things the right way," he added.

The Mustangs received home runs from Brandon Van Horn and Michael Sexton, the latter a former L-C player. Sexton's shot knotted things at 5-all in the seventh and gave him 17 on the year, a season his coach was sad to see come to a close.

"Michael Sexton had a really good day today," Mustangs coach Monte Brooks said, "and I was encouraged by the way we competed ... but we just didn't execute."

Ironically, Sterling had the game's only two errors - one of which brought The Master's back to life.

In the third inning, Sterling saw its 4-0 lead cut in half on Van Horn's dinger, a shot that hurt twice as much after an error by the Warriors' first baseman allowed the leadoff man to reach.

And three frames later, another fielding miscue by Sterling, in addition to spotting the Mustangs another run, tied things up at four.

But rather than fret, Sterling reliever Ryan Pope continued dodging bullets. Throughout the game, he stranded six Mustangs on base, half of those runners in scoring position.

And Mustangs starter Jason Karkenny was no slouch either, retiring 12 straight batters in one stretch.

"It was a fun game," said Sterling's coach, echoing a sentiment that both skippers emphasized: fun.

"An exciting game," Brooks said. "It was a great game for the fans."

Sterling The Master's

ab r h bi a r h bi

Radcliffe rf 3 1 1 0 Maitland cf 3 1 1 0

Stubblefield 3b 5 1 1 0 Janes ph 1 0 0 0

Kallas 2b 5 0 1 0 Van Horn ss 5 1 1 2

Dorado 1b 4 1 2 1 Sexton 2b 3 2 2 1

Ceballos c 3 2 2 4 Covello 3b 5 1 2 0

Schimenz pr 0 3 0 0 Sheafer c 4 0 2 1

Espino dh 5 0 2 2 Lutz pr 0 1 0 0

Maher lf 5 1 2 0 Nyenhuis 1b 4 0 1 1

Domitrovich cf 4 0 1 0 Jarrard dh 5 1 1 0

Ulanday 3b/2b 4 0 1 1 Good lf 3 0 2 1

Shackelford rf 3 0 0 0

Totals 38 9 13 8 36 7 12 6

Sterling 301 000 122-9 13 2

The Master's 003 001 300-7 12 0

Sterling ip h r er bb so

Rendon 2.1 4 3 2 2 2

Pope 4.2 7 4 3 1 3

Wagner (W,12-3) 2 1 0 0 0 3

Sterling ip h r er bb so

Karkenny 7.2 11 7 7 2 5

Alexander (L, 4-2) 1.1 2 2 2 0 0

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Edelman may be contacted at bedelman@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2277.