Seeing him step into the batter’s box with the bases loaded?

That’s the stuff of nightmares.

Gowanda’s star senior drove an 0-1 pitch over the left-center field fence for a grand slam to highlight the Panthers’ 11-2 nonleague baseball win over Fredonia on Saturday night at Panther Park.

As Herman stepped on home plate he told his gathered teammates “That’s game, boys.” One problem. That wasn’t technically the end of the game.

OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman Gowanda’s Blake Herman delivers to the plate during the first inning of Saturday’s nonleague baseball game against Fredonia at Panther Park in Gowanda.

While Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association league games play a 10-run mercy rule after 4 1/2 innings, coaches and umpires held a brief conference after Herman’s blast and decided to play the full seven innings Saturday.

Herman finished 3 for 4 with the four RBIs and two runs scored.

“For Blake, everybody has him circled in their lineup. They don’t want to throw him too many pitches that he can hit,” Gowanda head coach Tim Smith said. “The big thing about him is that he can extend the zone a little bit and go and get a barrel on it still if it’s a little bit out or a little bit up.”

In his first at-bat, he took a strike and watched a ball before flying out to left field. In his second at-bat, Herman took a strike, fouled two pitches off, watched a ball and then hit a hard single off Fredonia third baseman Pauly Tabone. After watching two balls to open his third at-bat, Herman roped a single to left field. Finally, he took a strike before hitting the grand slam, his third home run of the season.

“We respect everybody in that lineup, but you don’t want to put anybody on ahead of him,” Fredonia head coach Tim Cowan said. ” … I thought we pitched him well, you just don’t want to put guys on in front of him because he’ll make you pay for it.”

OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman Fredonia’s Andrew Cowan salutes the Hillbillies’ dugout after hitting a ground-rule double during Saturday’s nonleague baseball game against Gowanda at Panther Park in Gowanda.

Herman saw 13 pitches Saturday night. He didn’t swing and miss once and all four of the balls he put in play found his barrel. He is now hitting .612 on the season with a .738 on-base percentage.

“As the playoffs come around, strike zones tend to get a little bit tighter. He’ll have to be smart about that. He could be smart enough to take a lot of walks, but we want him to hit the ball too. We’re going to do more damage with him hitting gaps and hitting the ball over the fence than we are with him getting walks,” Smith said. “It’s kind of a reverse strategy with him. I don’t know if we’re going to say that about everybody, but there’s not too many Blake Hermans around Western New York either.”

Herman was pretty dominant on the mound as well. The right-hander threw shutout ball through five innings, allowing just one hit. In the end, Herman threw six innings, allowing three hits and two runs while striking out seven and walking two.

“I wanted him to face an extremely tough lineup,” said Smith, who held Herman back a day to face the Hillbillies.

The Hillbillies (8-8, 6-3 CCAA D1) did get a few barrels on Herman’s pitches. In the top of the second inning, Andrew Cowan hit a loud double to left field that one-hopped the fence. After a walk put runners at first and second, Colin Crowell hit a long fly ball to center field — that later in the game may have been wind-aided over the fence — but was tracked down by the Panthers’ Brayden Smith.

“When we swung the bat, we strung it for the most part. The ground-rule double, Crowell hit one right to the 350 in center,” Cowan said. “We just, for whatever reason, took too many.”

Herman followed the long out by striking out the next two Fredonia batters looking. That continued an early trend in the game that saw four Hillbillies strike out looking.

“You tip your cap to a good pitcher. He threw well, but I thought there were at-bats we gave away late,” Cowan said. “Our strikeouts looking were all on fastballs. That’s just not a formula to beat anybody, let alone Blake.”

Gowanda (15-3, 12-1 CCAA D3) took the lead in the bottom of the second inning. With two outs, Drew Kota walked and Seth Geiger singled before Madden Lay hit a long, two-run single to right-center field.

“He’s been hitting it hard. He’s been hitting gaps, whether it’s left field or right field,” Coach Smith said of Lay. “He’s pretty good at going with it if someone throws it to him on the outside part. If he gets one on the inside, he’s going to punish it.”

The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning. Herman led off with a single, stole second and third, and scored on Kyan Austin’s RBI single to left field.

After a flyout, Luca Gullo relieved starter AJ Kinney on the mound for the Hillbillies. Kinney certainly deserved better than his fate. He threw 4 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and four runs while striking out two and walking one.

“AJ was outstanding … he pitched well enough to continue. It really had nothing to do with that third run getting across,” Coach Cowan said. ” … That was predetermined, we were taking him out at 70 (pitches). He gave us a great start, challenged hitters throughout their lineup and gave us what we wanted.”

Logan Ruff greeted Gullo with a fly ball down the left field line that looked to be heading out of play, but actually blew back into fair territory and fell for a two-base error. Jayden Fish followed with an RBI single, Geiger later hit an RBI single and Smith walked with the bases loaded to force in a run before Herman’s grand slam.

“If they’re not getting on base, there’s no such thing as a grand slam,” Coach Smith said. “One thing we’ve been talking about is guys having great at-bats so that they can get on and make things like that happen.”

Matt Cowan hit an RBI double and Colin Luce hit an RBI single in Fredonia’s half of the sixth inning to eventually chase Herman from the mound.

Lay added an RBI single in Gowanda’s half of the sixth inning to cap the scoring.

Both teams will close league play today with Fredonia traveling to Allegany-Limestone and Gowanda visiting North Collins. Their postseason fates will be determined Wednesday when Section VI holds its playoff seeding meeting.

“These guys have been playing their butts off out there and making plays. These pitchers are throwing strikes. They realize and they know that they are back there to make plays. When they make pitches and guys pop it up or hit a groundball, they’ve been there to make these plays,” Coach Smith said. ” … It’s complimentary baseball. Make pitches, they put it in play and we have to make plays behind them.”