ELIDA – Ottawa Glandorf is headed to the state ACME tournament next weekend for the first time in many years as they defeated Bath 3-2 to clinch the District 5 crown.
Bath opened the scoring against Titan hurler Trevor Maag in the top half of the first inning with an RBI double to bring across teammate Quintin Collins from first.
Working with two outs in their own first at bat the Titans turned a walk into a run to tie the game at 1-1 with an RBI single from catcher Jayden Stechschulte.
After allowing the marker in the opening frame, Maag retired the next seven hitters in order to push the tie into the home half of the third where Mitchell Schroeder’s one out double gave the blue and gold a chance to take the lead.
Wildcat starter Clay Boedicker’s pair of wild pitches moved Schroeder from first to third on the first eventually in to score on a pitch to the backstop to give OG a 2-1 advantage.
Quintin Collins helped the visitors respond in the top of the fourth frame on his second single of the day before being replaced with a pinch runner. Outfielder Jackson Kohlreiser brought in the runner to again tie the game, this time at 2-2 a few batters later on a ball to center.
Bath’s opportunity to take the lead came and went with no additional runs across as Maag worked a bases loaded strikeout of Boedicker to end the threat.
Titan left fielder Griffin Seimet’s sharp ground ball to third was misplayed by Bath and allowed him to go to third as it was compounded by a throwing error on a toss over first base.
Catcher Jayden Stechschulte, the next OG hitter in the bottom of the fifth grounded out to short and was out by a step at first but watched as Seimet slid home to push the Titans ahead once again at 3-2.
Bath’s final two at bats of the afternoon saw a pair of runners reach with two outs in the sixth but come to an end with a flyout and a double play erase a chance at a tie before the final out, a strikeout of Joel Rasor procured the final out for the Titans.
Trevor Maag improved his season mark to 5-0 with the win that saw him toss seven innings and allowing a pair of runs on four hits while striking out seven, walking one, and hitting two batters on 92 pitches. OG has now won all eight games Maag has appeared on the mound this season.
Clay Boedicker suffered the loss for the Wildcats as he surrendered three runs on three hits while walking four and striking out a pair.
“We played a lot better defensively today than we did on Friday against Bath. Credit goes to Trevor Maag, he has been big for us all year. To be able to come out and earn the first state berth of my lifetime is awesome, I couldn’t be more happy for this group of guys I’m coaching this summer” said Titan head coach Dylan Leopold after the victory.
Ottawa Glandorf (9-5) will head to Defiance on Saturday morning and take on Napoleon, winners of District 1 at 11:30am in a game broadcast live on https://www.christiannetcast.com/listen/player.asp?station=zsportslive2
Asked about next week Leopold responded “We will enjoy this for a week but the job isn’t done, we’ve got a tough Napoleon team on Saturday.”
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BATH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| OG | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 3 | 5 | 2 |