Long-time coming: Dutch Fork baseball defeats region foe River Bluff twice, advances to state title series

Coming into the Class 5A Lower State championship, Dutch Fork had lost three of four contests against Region 5-5A foe River Bluff this season, including once already in the Lower State championship bracket.

But on the biggest stage to date, the Silver Foxes used the arm of Ty Olenchuk to win game one, 4-2, then hit three home runs against Clemson commit Ricky Williams to claim a 6-2 victory in the decisive game to advance to the best-of-three state championship series against Blythewood beginning on Saturday.

“I know the history of the school, know the history of (former coach) Al Berry,” said Dutch Fork coach Casey Waites, who student taught under Berry. “We wanted to bring it back. Obviously with TK (Tom Knotts) winning, the expectation is getting to a state championship and winning. It’s been six years coming. This is for the entire Dutch Fork community.”

Olenchuk, also a Clemson commit, was dominant on the mound in the first game. He allowed two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and one walk in 6 2/3 innings before having to leave after reaching the 110-pitch limit. He only allowed one hit through the first five innings.

“All the guys were just saying, ‘Ty give us the second game and we’ll get it done.’ I knew they had hitters, they hit me well the last appearance I was out here. But I was on my stuff today,” Olenchuk said. “We had so much confidence coming in off that first game win, then send one 365, that was awesome. People feed off confidence and when you have a team as confident as us right now, anything can happen with the long ball.”

Momentum was on Dutch Fork’s side. To add to it, Olenchuk led off the game with a blast just next to the 365-foot mark in centerfield that was ruled a home run despite River Bluff outfielder Alex Urban immediately raising his hands, indicating the ball skipped under the fence for a ground-rule double.

But the second base umpire went all the way to the fence and ruled it went over.

A walk, single and fielder’s choice left runners at first and third with two outs with Lance Fuhr at the plate. He blasted his fourth home run of the postseason, a 3-run shot over the left-field wall for a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

That is Fuhr’s fourth home run of the postseason after not hitting any during the regular season.

“I’ve been trying to figure out my role on the team and not hit home runs and just get base hits when they count. It’s turned into good things,” Fuhr said. “To me follow up what Ty did in the first inning was huge. It was one of the best things that could have happened in a situation like today.”

River Bluff coach Mark Bonnette said the start Dutch Fork had the momentum coming into the second game and the start just carried that over.

“They had momentum and Ricky (Williams) wasn’t as sharp as he’s been,” he’s said. “But he’s been great all year. At the end of the day, those early runs were tough because it allowed them to settle in.”

Urban, a Clemson commit, responded with a solo home run in the bottom half of the inning to trim the lead to 4-1. Noah Jackson answered that with a home run to leadoff the third inning to make it 5-1 before the pitchers settled in.

Doug Webb picked up the victory, scattering five hits over 5 2/3 innings. Blair Rogers pitched the final 1 1/3 innings to earn his second save of the night.

Dutch Fork scored two in the fifth and two in the six to win the first game. The Silver Foxes didn’t have a hit until the fifth inning. Olenchuk drove home the first run and Bryan Helms added the second for a 2-0 lead.

They extended the lead to 4-0 on an Olenchuk sacrifice fly and RBI single from Hugh Ryan. River Bluff cut the lead in half with two runs on four hits in the sixth before Rogers closed it out.

Game 1

Dutch Fork 4, River Bluff 2

WP: Ty Olenchuk. LP: Brayden Fowler. Hitters: DF - Olenchuk 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI.

Game 2

Dutch Fork 6, River Bluff 2

WP: Doug Webb. LP: Ricky Williams. Hitters: DF – Olenchuk 1-4, HR; Noah Jackson 2-4, HR; Lance Fuhr 1-4, HR, 3 RBI; Price Alexander 2-3; Jalen McDuffie 2-4. RB – Alex Urban 1-3, HR; Jacob Lebron 2-3.

This story was originally published May 9, 2019 at 3:48 AM.