DAYTON – Delphos St. Johns was held scoreless and hitless through the first five innings of Saturday afternoon’s high school showcase at Day Air Ballpark but were able to turn the tide in their last at bat as they defeated Lincolnview 3-1.
The 12th of 37 scheduled high school baseball contests at the home of the Dayton Dragons was delayed by a nearly 45 minute rain delay that rolled through the area just before first pitch.
Lincolnview’s lone base runner in their first pair of at bats Collin Overholt reached on a walk by St. Johns hurler Curtis Mueller and was joined by teammate Dane Ebel in the opening frame but quickly erased on a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.
St. Johns first opportunity to threaten came in nearly the same fashion in the bottom of the second after a hit by pitch of Zane Wertenberger and an error that allowed Mueller to reach but was quelled by Lancer pitcher Dane Ebel who tossed a pair of strikeouts at Blue Jay hitters to keep the game scoreless heading into the third.
Caden Hanf led off the third inning for Lincolnview by ripping a single through the infield and moved to third on a single by Overholt before pushing across the first run of the game on a wild pitch that sailed to the backstop from Mueller for a 1-0 advantage.
Mueller induced a fly out and a pop out in the top of the fifth inning against the aggressive Lancer lineup but found himself in trouble with two outs as he would surrender a double to left from Ohio State commit Landon Price and be forced to exit after issuing an intentional pass to Collin Overholt.
Shortstop Brady Kerner replaced Mueller in the inning and produced an out to end the Lancers at bat when Price was picked off attempting to steal third.
Despite having their first base runner of the game since the second in the fifth, the Jays were unable to score and were forced to wait until the sixth to crack a solid outing from Ebel after leaving three Lincolnview runners on the bases in the top of the same frame.
Landen Grothaus slapped a first pitch single to left field that dropped just in front of Jack Dunlap for the first hit of the contest for St. Johns and set the table for a possible comeback. Exactly as their opponents had done earlier in the game the Blue Jays notched their first run as Grothaus sprinted home on a ball to the back stop to tie the contest at 1-1.
Brady Kerner singled on a 2-2 pitch to the outfield to put runners at the corners and was joined on the bases by Gavin Fittro to load them up before a 2-RBI single by Trent Lindeman pushed the Jays in front 3-1 with no outs.
Lincolnview’s Price notched his second double of the game with one out in the top half of the seventh but was unable to come around to score as Kerner initiated a ground ball and fly out to secure the Jays victory.
St. Johns mentor Jerry Jackson after the game stated “Kudos to the pitchers throwing on the mound today! Dane Ebel threw well for 5 innings and Curtis Mueller & Brady Kerner worked together to keep Lincolnview to 1 run. Defensively we played well and the 6th inning we took advantage of their mistakes!”
Kerner who entered the game in relief tossed 2.1 innings and allowed just one hit while striking out and walking one each for his second victory of the season for the Jays (4-9) who will next be in action on Tuesday when they travel to Rockford to battle Parkway in MAC play.
Dane Ebel (2-2) pitched all six innings for the Lancers (9-4) and allowed four hits and three runs while striking out nine and walking three. Lincolnview will travel to Columbus Grove on Monday for an NWC battle with the Bulldogs.
“Today was a very good high school baseball game. I thought Dane pitched well for us and I wish we could have gotten him some run support” said Lincolnview boss Eric Fishpaw after the game.
Lincolnview 0-0-1-0-0-0-0
St. Johns 0-0-0-0-0-3-x