COLDWATER – Lincolnview’s fast start, when the Lancers put seven runs on the scoreboard in the first four innings, was too much for Perry to recover from in a Division IV baseball district semifinal at Coldwater, won 7-4 by Lincolnview, on Wednesday.
Lincolnview (18-5) is scheduled to play the winner of Wednesday’s other semifinal at Coldwater between Lima Central Catholic and St. Henry, at 6 p.m. Friday at Coldwater for a district championship.
LCC led St. Henry 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning when that game was hit by a rain delay and suspended. It is scheduled to resume at 5 p.m., today, weather permitting.
The Lancers scored two runs in the first inning, got another in the second inning and scored two more runs in both the third and fourth innings to take a 7-0 lead.
Perry responded with a four-run sixth inning but that was as close as the Commodores could get.
“We were a little bit shell shocked early,” Perry coach Mark Hoersten said. “We weren’t used to somebody scoring that much on Ryan (starting pitcher Ryan Yingst). He didn’t have his best stuff. I liked the way we battled back. We had some chances if we could have gotten some key hits.”
With a strong No. 2 pitcher in Dane Ebel and a 7-0 lead, Lincolnview was able to pull starting pitcher Landon Price before he threw 50 pitches, which means he will be available for 125 pitches in the district championship game on Friday.
Perry took advantage of four walks in its big sixth inning. After one out, Joey Hoersten and Travis Nanchoff walked and both scored on a triple by Yingst to cut the lead to 7-2. Hunter Klett and Jehu Muniz drew the third and fourth walks of the inning to load the bases.
Yingst scored on an infield single by Brady Shively and Klett scored on a passed ball to cut the lead to 7-4.
“I don’t think we had a let-up intensity-wise or effort-wise. Sometimes those things just happen,” Lincolnview coach Eric Fishpaw said. “We have all the confidence in the world in our players, our offense, our defense that we would come out ahead in this game at the end of the seventh inning.
“Overall, we’re just proud of our resilient bunch of guys with a one game at a time attitude. We’ve a chance to defend the district championship. That was one of our goals in the preseason back in March,” he said.
Carson Fox was 3 for 3 with a double and two singles to lead Lincolnview’s offense. Austin Bockrath was 2 for 3 with a triple and a single and Cole Binkley was 2 for 4.
“Carson Fox in the four hole continues to be our best batter. He continues to be a catalyst in the middle of our lineup. He’s having a phenomenal year and is playing some great baseball,” Fishpaw said.
Joey Hoersten went 2 for 3 for Perry.
Mark Hoersten said, “It’s been a while since we’ve been over 20 (wins). It’s been a good season for us. We beat two pretty good MAC teams to get here. If we don’t put ourselves in a hole early and didn’t let the atmosphere get to us early I think we would have had a better chance. It was a solid season.”
LCC-St. Henry
The Thunderbirds took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning when Matt Quatman, Billy Bourk and Braden Tarr walked to load the bases and Jacob Lauck drew a fourth walk to score a run.
LCCs lead grew to 3-0 in the top of the fifth inning. Connor Gephart started the inning by drawing a walk, the seventh allowed by St. Henry pitcher Nolan Schmitz. Bourk followed with a single and a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third.
Lauck then singled to score Gephart and Bourk for a 3-0 lead.
Bourk struck out nine and allowed only two hits in the four innings he pitched.
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