Rice lays down key bunt in win

TOLONO — I remember back when I was in high school, my varsity baseball coach was obsessed with bunting. He made us practice it all the time. We didn't do it much in games — our offense scored a lot of runs, anyway — but whether we were in hitting slump or not, coach always made us practice the bunt.

We had one particular drill where coach would put our ace on the mound, our catcher behind the plate, one batter in the box and everyone else at third base. The pitcher was instructed to throw his fastball past our hitter, and it was his job to get the squeeze bunt down safely so the runner from third could easily score. After every successful bunt, the runner who scored would enter the box and the batter who executed the bunt would get in line at third. Before the drill was over, every last one of us had to get our bunts down. We had 18 guys on our team, which meant we had to go 18 for 18 on bunts before coach would let us go home.

We did this at least once a week; and we got awfully good at bunting.

"It's the little plays that lead to big wins," our coach would always tell us.

Well, I think it's safe to say my high school coach would have been awfully proud of the bunting display put on by Unity Monday. Rockets' catcher Jacob Rice squeezed home Daniel Gaither with the bases loaded and the infield in during the last of the seventh, pushing Unity past Okaw Valley 5-4 in non-conference baseball action.

"We work a lot on bunting so when a situation comes up for us to use it, we want to take advantage of that," Unity baseball coach Dan Cunningham said.

The Rockets tried more than a half a dozen bunts during Monday's game, and even though they weren't perfect on all of them, they were able to get down a key bunt when they needed it.

The play was especially impressive considering the Timberwolves realigned their defense specifically to stop it.

Okaw Valley's coach pulled his team's less-mobile starting third baseman for their starting centerfielder with the bases loaded and Rice up, hoping to increase his infield's athleticism and stop the squeeze from working. With the wind blowing out, Okaw Valley knew a fly ball would end the game anyway, so it made sense to lock down the infield.

The plan didn't seem to bother Rice however, as he had no trouble dropping a fastball between the mound and the plate, easily scoring Gaither with the winning run. The victory improved the Rockets' record to 3-3, and continued their quest toward becoming an Okaw Valley contender.

Whether or not Unity will have the horses for an OVC run remains to be seen, but one thing's for sure: If the Rockets can keep doing the little things, they'll always be competitive.