DAYTON – An hour and a half rain delay before play began couldn’t stop the hot bats of Fort Loramie from putting an end to Lincolnview’s winning streak as the Redskins downed the Lancers 4-3 on Saturday afternoon.
Lincolnview jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first as the trio of Landon Price, Cole Binkley, and Carson Fox produced singles against Redskin starter Derek Meyer and were aided by a sacrifice ground out from Caden Hanf to produce the first lead of the contest.
Fort Loramie’s first two at bats left a quartet of would be runs on the bases against Lincolnview starter Jack Dunlap but finally broke through in the top of the third when Dunlap hit the first two batter of the inning with a pitch.
Outfielder Karson Tennery pulled Fort Loramie to within 2-1 with an RBI single to score Evan Eilerman and in the process stopped the Lancers scoreless streak at 34 innings of play dating back through their last four games, all shutout victories.
Fort Loramie pushed across two more runs in against Dunlap in the frame to take their first lead at 3-2 before the inning met a conclusion with an Isaac Raterman fly out.
Lincolnview’s best chance in the middle innings to tie the game came in the bottom of the same inning when the Lancers utilized a single from Landon Price to kick off the at bat but ended in disaster when Price was removed on a fielders choice and Cole Binkley was thrown out at the plate by the duo of Raterman and Eilerman attempting to score on a triple by Dane Ebel.
Already a thorn in the side of the Lancers, Karson Tennery struck again in the top of the fifth as he drew a five pitch walk from Dunlap and chased the Lincolnview hurler in favor of reliever Keegan Farris.
Unfortunately for the defending state runner ups Farris surrendered a pair of singles to Taron Fleckenstein and Ty Ruhenkamp, and an RBI bases loaded walk to Clint Hilgefort to run the Redskins advantage to 4-2.
Working through the bottom of their own order in the fifth the Lancers cut the deficit to a run on an RBI single by future Ohio State Buckeye Landon Price but again were victimized by a perfect throw from a Fort Loramie defender to cut down the tying run at the plate to quell the threat of an equalizing score.
Derek Meyer surrendered 10 hits on the day but finished the game striking out two hitters on his way to securing the victory. Meyer ended with three runs allowed and five strikeouts against just a single walk while improving his record to 3-1.
Jack Dunlap dipped to 1-3 on the season with the loss as he tossed four innings while surrendering all four Redskin markers with two strikeouts, walks, and a trio of hit batters.
Fort Loramie, ranked #13 in the state in Division 4 improves to 13-5 on the year and will be in action on Monday against Botkins while the #5 ranked Lancers (11-4) see their 11-game win streak come to a stop. Lincolnview will be on the road Monday for an NWC tilt at Delphos Jefferson.
“I thought for the most part we had pretty competitive at bats against their pitcher Derek Meyer. We were able to get 10 hits and get guys on base but had too many base running mistakes. When you play a great team like Fort Loramie you can’t have those” said Lincolnview coach Eric Fishpaw.