Lancers fend off Wildcats

KALIDA – Two of the best teams in Northwest Ohio squared off on Monday night at Holy Name Ballpark in Kalida with visiting Lincolnview coming out on top 4-2 in a non-conference clash.

Lincolnview starter Collin Overholt surrendered just one hit, a single to Brandon Miller in the bottom of the second in the early stages of the contest while retiring a total of seven Wildcats via strikeout during his time on the mound.

The Lancers jumped ahead 1-0 in the second inning thanks to a pair of Kalida fielding errors before utilizing a small ball approach of a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly from Caden Hanf and Brandon Renner respectively to score Carson Fox.

Carson Klausing replaced starter Ryan Lucke in the third inning for Kalida and allowed a lead-off double to Lincolnview’s Creed Jessee to give the Lancers a base runner to open the frame. After striking out Landon Price as part of a nine pitch at bat the Wildcats righty surrendered an RBI double to Overholt that pushed the visitors lead to 2-0.

Kalida’s first run of the game came in the fourth inning in similar fashion to one they had previously surrendered as an error by the Lancers placed Justin Siebeneck on the bases to be driven in just two batters later by EJ Miller to trim the deficit to 2-1 heading into the fifth.

After finding themselves with the bases loaded and not scoring against Klausing in the fourth, the Lancers added another run to their tally in the fifth as another Wildcat error provided Overholt a spot on the bases before a sacrifice fly by Dane Ebel and a sacrifice bunt from Carson Fox brought sent him racing in across home plate for a 3-1 lead.

Despite opening the bottom of the sixth by inducing a fly out by Ryan Lucke, Overholt found his turn on the rubber done for the afternoon after 5.1 innings worth of work that netted just a run on a pair of hits and featured seven strikeouts.

“I thought Collin did a great job pounding the strike zone and mixing up speeds” Lincolnview head coach Eric Fishpaw opined on his starting pitcher.

Ohio State University bound lefty Landon Price relieved Overholt on the mound for Lincolnview and was immediately treated to a triple off the face of the outfield wall by Kalida senior outfielder Luke Erhart on the first pitch he was offered.

Kalida’s offense hung a run on Price just moments later as a Colin Hoffman hit was misplayed by the middle infield and allowed Erhart to score to trim the advantage to 3-2 heading to the final inning.

Drew Buss, into his third inning of relief for the host squad surrendered a five pitch walk to Creed Jessee as well as a walk to Price to give the Lancers a pair of base runners before seeing Jessee come in to score on an RBI ground out by Dane Ebel to run the lead to 4-2 Lincolnview.

Two runners found their way on via just the fourth and fifth walks of the season by Price but were left on the bases when Ryan Lucke was sat down looking at a pitch to end the game to earn Price his first save.

“We made some defensive mistakes that cost us a few runs, you can’t do that against a really good team like Lincolnview. We faced two future college pitchers tonight, we should have had the tying run in scoring position with our best hitter up in the last inning. I’m proud of how we battled at the end” said Kalida boss Chad Ehrnsberger.

Asked about his pitching duo, Lincolnview’s mentor said “Landon did not have his best stuff in relief tonight but was able to get out of a jam. It was a good team win over a quality opponent in Kalida that we were able to manufacture some runs against.”

Kalida falls to 16-7 on the season and will host Ottawa Glandorf on Tuesday at 5:00 P.M. in their regular season finale before starting tournament play on Thursday at Holy Name Ballpark against either Pandora Gilboa or Fort Jennings.

Ryan Lucke suffered his first loss of the season (6-1) while giving up a single run in two innings pitched while his counterpart Collin Overholt moved to 6-1 with the win for the Lancers (18-8) who begin their postseason run against either Perry or Spencerville on Thursday in Middle Point.