Deitsch hits grand slam in Redskins' win

ST. HENRY - St. Henry's Rylee Deitsch had a night to remember against Parkway in Thursday evening's Division IV sectional final at the Wally Post Athletic Complex.

The senior limited Parkway to just four hits in going the distance on the mound and at the plate, he knocked in five runs - including a third-inning grand slam home run - to lead St. Henry to an 8-1 victory in its postseason opener.

"What a night for Rylee Deitsch," St. Henry coach John Dorner said. "That's the kind of game you dream of having."

St. Henry loaded the bases in the third inning on singles by Kent Buschur, Jay Knapke and Daylen Froning. Parkway pitcher Breyden Bruns then induced Sam Lefeld to ground to shortstop Seth Stukey, who cut down Buschur at the plate for the second out of the inning.

Deitsch then stepped to the plate and ripped a no-doubter over the left field fence to break the scoreless tie. Later, Ethan Thieman singled, stole second base and then scored on a single by Marc Siefring to put the finishing touches on the five-run inning.

"We were hitting the ball well and then we tied some hits together and hitting is contagious," Dorner said.

"They really hit the ball hard, but I thought we made all the plays we could. There just isn't any defense for a ball hit over the fence," Parkway coach Luke Clouse said.

Justan Felver replaced Bruns to start the fourth and after tossing a scoreless inning, he surrendered a couple more runs in the fifth. After Froning collected his second single of the night, Lefeld tripled to the fence in left center to score Froning and then Lefeld scored on a Deitsch groundout.

Parkway scored its lone run in the top of the sixth inning on consecutive two-out singles by Corey Walls, Jack Wehe and Nick Riley.

St. Henry rounded out the scoring by pushing across an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth.

"I am really proud of our effort. We played hard and did a lot of good things. Give St. Henry all the credit. They are really good," Clouse said of his team, which finishes at 10-13. "It's just disappointing to get knocked out by another MAC team again."

On the mound, Deitsch did not walk a batter and struck out two. The defense behind him was nearly perfect. Third baseman Andrew Lange recorded eight put outs, fielding several hard-hit balls on the hot corner.

"We really played a well-rounded game," Dorner said. "Parkway had some hard-hit balls and pretty much answered the call. Andrew was busy down at third base all game long. We made an error on the first play of the game, but nobody was phased by it and we got out of the inning pretty quickly. Our seniors rose to the occasion today and we beat a good team and are still alive. That was what we were hoping to do."