KALIDA – Monday night Jaden Smith showed off his defensive ability, hitting ability and pitching skills off at Holy Name Ballpark to lead Kalida to a 2-1 victory over Lincolnview.
“Jaden Smith is a guy I would love to use on the mound more often but it’s tough to take him away from shortstop. In my opinion he’s probably the best shortstop I’ve seen in my three years of coaching high school baseball. He made a play tonight in the hole on (Dane) Ebel’s ground ball that most college shortstops don’t make every day, it’s a pleasure to watch him play every day” said Kalida head coach Chad Ehrnsberger.
Ranked #12 and #9 respectively in the state, Kalida and Lincolnview engaged in a low scoring game with opportunities and runs coming at an extreme premium.
Lincolnview broke through in their opening at bat with a single and a stolen base from leadoff hitter Chayse Overholt and an RBI single by shortstop Dane Ebel against Wildcat starter Colin Hoffman to take a 1-0 lead.
Kalida opened their second at bat of the game with a single from Dyllan Bendele and an RBI single from Michael Horstman to tie the game at 1-1 but saw their chances come to an end on a 7-6-5 double play that caught Horstman for the third out as he attempted to move on a deep fly ball by Bubba Smith.
Anchoring the short stop position for the Wildcats Smith made a pair of plays to send the Lancers away in the top of the third inning that included a long throw from the back of the infield to rob would be base runner Dane Ebel to end the threat.
Locked in a tie game the two teams continued to show off their defensive playmaking abilities as a low sinking liner with two outs off the bat of Ethan Wehri was snagged on a dive by Lincolnview right fielder Caden Hanf in the fourth. Kalida countered the great play by Hanf in the top of the fifth to send down Myles Moody on an attempted bunt with a dive across the turf infield for an out.
Lincolnview threatened against relief pitcher Jaden Smith, but were unable to push across the go ahead run as a 4-6-3 double play silenced the blue and gold bats in the sixth and a strikeout ended the contest an inning later.
Despite playing with a broken hand and ring finger suffered in a game against Lima Central Catholic, Smith opened the bottom of the sixth by lining a ball into the outfield against Lincolnview reliever Jack Dunlap.
Carson Klausing brought Smith in to score the game’s deciding run two batters later as he bashed a ball for an RBI single to make it a 2-1 Kalida advantage.
“This is a big win for us, Lincolnview has been so good for so long and is the measuring stick for other D4 teams in our area. We’ve got them two years in a row in the regular season and now just need to carry this momentum into the tournament and make a deep run” opined Ehrnsberger on the win.
Jaden Smith (2-0) took the win for the Wildcats as he allowed just two hits and a hit by pitch in his time on the mound while Aiden Hardesty was saddled with the loss for Lincolnview. Hardesty (2-3) worked five and a third inning and surrendered two runs on five hits with three strikeouts and a pair of walks and a single hit by pitch.
Lincolnview (16-9) has dropped five of their last six contests and will next be in action on Thursday when they open postseason play hosting the winner of Continental and Fort Jennings at 5pm.
The Wildcats improve to 19-5 on the year and will host Ottoville or Ayersville on Thursday in the sectional finals before a Monday night road contest to end the regular season at Coldwater.
“Both teams made some really awesome defensive plays in a well played game tonight on both sides. We had chances to score but Kalida put out our offensive chances, kudos to a good Kalida team on a well played baseball game” said Lincolnview head coach Eric Fishpaw.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lincolnview | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| Kalida | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 2 | 5 | 0 |