FINDLAY – Ottawa Glandorf secured their 12th straight sectional championship on Friday night as they defeated host Liberty Benton 4-2.
Scoreless after the first, Ottawa Glandorf’s Brandon Warnecke reached on an error and was brought across the plate moments later by teammate Brad Maag who slapped a pitch off the base of the left centerfield wall to make it a 1-0 contest.
Pitchers Kam Garlock (LB) and Carter Duling (OG) engaged in a pitchers duel that saw each allow a runner and then work themselves out of trouble over the next few innings.
Liberty Benton appeared to be in position to tie the contest in their at bat in the bottom of the third on an errant pickoff attempt but as Lincoln Garlock raced from first to third base an appeal showed he appeared to have missed second base and was deemed out.
Still leading 1-0 in the top of the sixth the visitors added three to their tally on the day to take a 4-0 lead. Warnecke led off the frame with a double and was joined on the bases by Colin White and Grant Leopold. Leopold’s fielders choice brought home Warnecke before a single by Brad Maag scored White.
Following a pitching change to Landen Stansbery the Titans punched across their final marker of the evening on a sacrifice bunt RBI from leadoff hitter Ty Buckland before the frame came to an end.
Liberty Benton led off the seventh inning with an out from Trevin Lieb but were able to send two across the plate after singles by Jarret Haan and a walk to Seth Elchert set up the duo of Stansbery (single) and Lincoln Garlock (fielders choice) to trim the deficit for the Eagles to just two.
Unfortunately for Liberty Benton their season came to an end just one hitter later as Duling struck out Kam Garlock to secure Ottawa Glandorf’s second victory of the year over the Eagles and punch the Titans trip to the district semifinals.
OG head coach Nick Watkins on the win said “Obviously we played well enough to win a ballgame against a good opponent. We played defense, we pitched well and executed offensively and that led to good things for us and put us in position to win a sectional championship.”
The Eagles end their season with a school record 21 wins and a 9-0 mark in the BVC. Kam Garlock ends his senior campaign 6-2 with both losses coming to the Titans. Garlock tossed 5.1 innings of work and surrendered four runs on six hits with seven strikeouts and a walk.
Ottawa Glandorf (14-11) has now won five straight and will head into a Thursday 4:30pm Elida district semifinals matchup with Coldwater that can be heard live on https://www.christiannetcast.com/listen/player.asp?station=zsportslive2
Carter Duling improves to 3-4 with a complete game performance that saw him allow just a pair of runs on seven hits while striking out six and walking and hitting one batter on the evening.
“Carter did a very nice job of mixing pitches and letting his defense make plays for him. Carter works fast, throws strikes, and mixes speeds. That’s a good recipe for success if you’re a pitcher and he knows that” said Watkins.
| Teams | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OTWG | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| LBRT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 3 |