Rochester Ends Hearts' Season at Sectional

Too many errors and too few hits.

That summed up the Effingham Hearts' performance Wednesday, resulting in their season-ending 4-2 loss to the Rochester Rockets at the Decatur MacArthur 3A Sectional Tournament. The game was heard on 979XFM and www.979xfm.com. 

Effingham committed five errors, most of which contributed directly to Rochester runs. Meanwhile, Rochester lefthander Cam Edmondson held Effingham to two walks for the first three innings.

Mason Hull legged out a single for the first Effingham hit and scored on a balk and a wild pitch. Hull doubled to left in the sixth followed by a Ryan Sandifer single. Brayton Poland followed with a single, scoring Hull. But Rochester got out of the inning without further damage on a double play.

Rochester took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a wild pitch by Hearts starter Zach Lee. They extended the lead with a run in the fourth on two errors. A third run came in the fifth when Logan Sapp led off with a single. He was sacrified over to second and went to third on a single by Edmonson. An error on a ball hit by Ben Chapman led the run come home.

Then in the sixth, Jayden Myren reached on an error and came around to score the fourth and final run.

Neither team scored in the final frame.

Edmondson got the win for Rochester, now 27-6. Effingham closes out their 2018 campaign with a 25-6 record and has to say goodbye to nine seniors; Parker Seachrist, Ben Meinhart, Bryce Lohman, Blake Lohman, Mason Hull, Brett Koester, Ryan Sandifer, Patrick Sherrod and Hunter Peterson.

Class 3A Decatur MacArthur Sectional

Rochester               010    111    0    --    4-8-1

Effingham               000    101    0    --    2-5-5

WP -- Edmonson. LP -- Lee.

Rochester -- Reed, single; Myren, single; Baker, double; Sapp, single; Edmonson, single; Chapman, single; Henrikson, single; Mendenhall, single

Effingham -- Hull, single, double; Sandifer, single; Poland, single, 1 RBI; Lee, single