Bath’s Joel Rasor scores against Elida during Friday’s game at Bath High School.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
BATH TOWNSHIP – This spring, Bath has struggled at the plate.
However, in its Western Buckeye League baseball matchup against visiting Elida on Friday, Bath found its groove as it pounded 13 base hits, en route to a 12-2 run-rule victory over Elida in five innings.
With the win, Bath improved to 5-7 overall and 2-2 in the WBL. Elida slipped to 7-5 in all games played, and 3-1 in WBL action.
With Bath leading 4-2 and heading into the home half of the fifth, the Wildcats scored eight runs on six hits to close the game out.
“We’ve struggled with the bats, early in the season,” Bath coach Joe Gomez said. “It was nice to see us swing the way that we did. We had some key guys with some big hits. Zach Welsch was swinging it real nice. Quintin Collins swung it real nice. Really, up and down the order, we swung it pretty good. But the key is that we limited our strikeouts as well. So, even those balls that didn’t fall for us, we still made them earn those outs; and that’s been a struggle for us. So, it was great to see that improvement.”
Tyson McGee, Quintin Collins, Zach Welsch, Jaden Miller and Jackson Kohlreiser each had two hits for Bath.
Elida, on the other hand, recorded just four hits off Bath pitcher Logan Markley.
Markley struck out five, walked three and hit three batters. He threw 82 pitches in his five innings of work.
“Obviously with high school baseball, it’s much easier when you’re pitching with the lead, rather than pitching from behind,” Gomez said. “So, once we got him that lead, I do believe he settled in a little bit. The runs that they scored happened when they led off with a walk or led off with a hit-by-pitch. In high school baseball, when you walk or hit the first batter of an inning, it’s very likely that they’re going to score. After he corrected that problem, he really kept them off-balance. He threw a lot of strikes and made Elida work.”
Zach Suever got the starting nod on the mound for Elida. Suever pitched 4 1/3 innings before being lifted. Suever was tabbed for 10 runs on 11 hits while striking out three, walking three and hitting a batter. The senior right-hander tossed 92 pitches.
Noah Jostpille came in to relieve Suever in the fifth. Jostpille lasted just one-third of an inning before giving way to Gabe Miley, who finished the game on the mound for the Bulldogs.
In the big fifth inning for Bath, the Wildcats sent 12 batters to the plate. Welsch put the game away in the fifth with a single that plated two runs and gave Bath the convincing 10-run victory.
Elida stranded six baserunners, while Bath left four runners on base.
Bath lost some key players from last year’s squad.
“We’ve asked a lot of the guys, especially some of the young kids to step into roles that maybe traditionally are not ready to do so,” Gomez said. “But we’ve asked them to do so, and they continue to get better. And a sophomore like Logan Markley to be able to come out and perform the way he did, was great, especially against a pretty good Elida team.”
Box score (r-h-e)
Elida 1 1 0 0 0 X X – 2-4-1
Bath 1 1 2 0 8 X X – 12-13-0
Elida (ab-r-h-rbi)
Gabe Adcock 2-1-1-0, Zach Suever 1-0-0-0, Ryan McGue 3-0-0-0, Seth Sharp 3-0-1-0, Braden Simmons 2-0-0-0, Marc Troyer 1-0-0-0, Trey Hershey 2-0-1-0, Isaac Jones 1-1-0-0, Darien Jones 2-0-1-0
Bath (ab-r-h-rbi)
Skyler Lhamon 3-0-0-0, Tyson McGee 4-1-2-2, Joel Rasor 2-2-1-0, Quintin Collins 2-2-2-1, Zach Welsch 4-1-2-2, Jaden Miller 2-2-2-1, Peyton Liles 3-1-1-2, Kahne Sullivan 3-1-1-1, Jackson Kohlreiser 3-1-2-2
WP – Logan Markley (B)
LP – Zach Suever (E)
2B – Bath – Tyson McGee 1, Zach Welsch 1, Kahne Sullivan 1, Jackson Kohlreiser 1
Records: Bath 5-7, 2-2 WBL; Elida 7-5, 3-1 WBL
