As a freshman, Lee-Davis pitcher Michael Kluver was put into a pressure-packed situation. It was the Capital District tournament, a possible region berth on the line and Kluver was on the mound. The freshman took a loss in that game, but it merely served as a building block for the future.

  “I remember he pitched a great game and we came up a little short,” said Lee-Davis head coach Kenny Lewis. “I reminded Mike, ‘You know kid, when you’re a senior you’ll build on this.’

  Now a senior, Kluver got his chance on Friday night. The C-feds were battling Atlee in a district tie-breaker for a top seed and regional berth. It was the bottom of the seventh and the Raiders had just trimmed the Lee-Davis lead to 6-5. There were two outs, Atlee’s Cody Farrar was at the plate and power hitter Austin Young stood in the on deck circle.

  Kluver admits he was a little nervous. “I got a little tight but I just stepped off the mound, relaxed, and just went to work and let my mechanics do everything.”

  The game-on-the-line moment was one Kluver relished. “I’ve been doing this for a while so that’s what I look forward to,” he said. “I like going out there in tough situations and giving my team a chance to win.”

  The experience of three years paid off for Kluver as he struck out Farrar to pick up the save and guarantee Lee-Davis a berth in the regionals.

  “That kid was pitching in some big games for us as a freshman and we were putting him in some spots where you ideally, really wouldn’t want to put a freshman,” Lewis said. “All he did was step up and give everything he’s got and that’s all the kid has done all four years and it all pays off. He gets a regular season championship.”

  The regular season title also gave the C-feds a feeling of redemption. Lee-Davis came into the contest with only two Capital District losses, both to Atlee. But they also felt from the beginning of the season the district title was theirs to lose.

  “We knew we were the best team in the district by far,” Kluver said. “We just had to get out there in practice and get it done.”

  Lee-Davis senior catcher Will Connerley agreed. “We figured we had the most experience in the district,” he said. “We figured it would be our district and we laid an egg with Atlee twice and tonight was our chance to get back. The Lord blessed us with another chance and we had to make the best of it.”

  For Kluver the losses to Atlee actually helped the team in the long run. “Those were two back-breakers, we were winning both games and just let it slip away,” he said. “I think that really taught us a good lesson on how to finish games and just keep playing.”

  And no one can deny that Lee-Davis came out to play. Connerley stepped to the plate as the lead-off batter, took the first pitch from Atlee’s Luke Bolka and sent it over the right field fence for a 1-0 C-fed lead seconds into the game.

  Connerley, who recently moved into the lead-off slot, looked at the lineup change logically. “The way I took it as a philosophy is that the first pitch of the game is usually a fast ball and it’s usually right down the middle,” he said. “I just looked for the fastball and committed to if it’s anything but a fastball lay off it and see another pitch. It was a fastball right there.”

  Connerley’s home run immediately changed the complexion of the game, firing up his Lee-Davis teammates while stunning the Atlee opponents.

  “That was huge,” Kluver said. “That really set the tone of the game. If he hadn’t done that this game probably would have turned out differently.”

  “That kind of jump started things (for us) and that kind of sticks in their craw for a few innings,” Lewis said.

  The home run showed its effects in the Atlee bats. Facing C-fed pitcher Jordan Boze, the Raiders were hitless over the first two innings giving Lee-Davis a chance to break things open in the top of the third.

  Connerley (1 for 2, HR, 2 runs) led off with a walk and Kluver joined him on base when what should have been a double-play ball to short was bobbled, setting up a pattern of missed opportunities for the Raiders.

  With two runners on and no outs, Billy Steel, who turned in a stellar performance, going 1-for-2 with a RBI, two runs scored and three stolen bases, singled up the middle to drive in Connerley.

  The two C-fed runners moved into scoring position on a wild pitch and a sacrifice to right by Michael Thomas drove in Kluver for a 3-0 Lee-Davis lead.

  The Atlee pitching continued to go south as Steel then scored on a wild pitch and Jordan Boze reached after being hit by a pitch. Pinch-running for Boze, Logan Heckman moved to second then third on pitches in the dirt.

  Next up, Lee-Davis big man Jonathan Munn, who was impressive throughout, going 2-for-3 with an RBI and two stolen bases, lofted a shot over second to drive in Heckman for a 5-0 lead, which signaled the end to Bolka’s day on the mound.

  Though reliever Ryan Bettinger walked the first batter he faced, he struck out the next two to escape the third with no more damage.

  “They capitalized on mistakes,” said Atlee’s Austin Young. “When we had an error up the middle they capitalized and put four up on us by the end of the inning.”

  In the bottom of the third the Atlee bats finally came to life.

  With one out, Bettinger (2-for-3, 2B, run) singled to right and Chop Pulisic reached on a short blooper to third. A double down the left line by Farrar drove in pinch-runner Steven Edmonds to get the Raiders on the board. Next up, Austin Young drilled a shot that clung to the left field line for a double, driving in Pulisic and Farrar to pull Atlee within two, 5-3.

  It appeared the Raiders would pull even closer when Young (1-for-2, 2B, 2 RBI) advanced to third on a ground-out by Brent West, but missed opportunity struck again.

  When it appeared that Boze had baulked on the mound, Young took off for home only to be easily thrown out at the plate.

  “Sort of a stupid base running thing,” Young said. “I thought (Boze) moved but it doesn’t matter if they don’t call it. It’s all hearsay from there. If it’s not called, it’s not called.

  “You win some, you lose some,” Young added. “Bad base running comes back and haunts us when you lose by one.”

  The protests of Atlee coach Kevin Elrod went unabated.

  Though neither team scored over the next two innings, Lewis decided to make a pitching change in the bottom of the fifth, sending Kluver to the mound to replace Boze.

  “Jordan, it seems historically this year at least, he kind of hits a wall,” Lewis said. “He seemed to be going along then they had the inning where it seemed they were squaring some balls up. So we felt like when they got back to the top of the lineup we’d see where Jordan was.

  “He was going 2-0, 3-1, he was getting behind hitters,” Lewis added. “It just seemed like this game was too important to take a chance when we’ve got Mike fully recovered and ready in the outfield. So it seemed to be the logical move.”
  Against Kluver, Atlee trimmed the C-fed lead to 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth. With two outs, West doubled past a diving Hank Parsley at third then scored on a Paul Keyes single to short.

  Lee-Davis moved the gap back to two in the top of the seventh when a Boze sacrifice to deep right drove in Steel for a 6-4 C-fed lead.

  But the Raiders came out strong in the bottom of the seventh. DH Kenner Berry led off with a double to the center field fence then came home on a Pulisic sacrifice to center.

  But Kluver came back even stronger with two outs to strike out Farrar (1-for-3, 2B, RBI) and end the game.

  The victory showed that Lee-Davis is playing as a complete team with the post season on hand.

  “It was an absolute team effort,” Lewis said. “We were energized on the bench and everybody contributed and as a coach you really like to see that.”

  In the opposite dugout the Raiders knew they faced a tall task coming into the game. “It’s really hard to beat some teams three games in a row,” Young said. “We knew we had to come with our A game and just knew we had to pitch well and play our game this time to. We knew they weren’t going to give us anything.”

  The Atlee loss means they will now have to beat #3 seed Hanover on their home field in the Capital District semifinals for a shot at a regional berth.

  “It’s going to be a hard game against them,” Young said. “They’re fresh. Our pitching, we’re throwing a lot of people tonight and we’ve got to come through on Tuesday and have a real good pitching performance against them.”

  Atlee’s game is one Lewis is glad his C-feds do now not have to play as they had already beaten the Hawks twice. “I think it’s hard to beat a really good team three times,” he said. “We felt that way in tonight’s game. We felt that people come out, play clean, play smart, it would be difficult for Atlee to beat us three times. Hanover’s a very good baseball team and that would not be preferred way of getting into the regionals. To beat them on Tuesday is not the preferred route.”

Lee-Davis….........104 000 1 — 6 6 0
Atlee ....................003 001 1 — 5 8 1
Boze, Kluver (5) and Connerly; Bolka, Bettinger (3) and Keeler. W: Boze. L: Bolka. S: Kluver
Highlights: Will Connerly (L-D) 1 for 2, HR, 2 runs; Jonathan Munn (L-D) 2 for 3, RBI, 2 SB; Billy Steel (L-D) 1 for 2, RBI, 2 runs, 3 SB; Austin Young (A) 1 for 2, 2B, 2 RBI; Ryan Bettinger (A) 2 for 3, 2B, run; Cody Farrar (A) 1 for 3, 2B, RBI