FINDLAY – Monday night’s non-league contest in Findlay saw the host Trojans fall behind early while rallying twice to slide past visiting Coldwater 9-8 in extra innings.
Trailing for the second time after a Cavalier run in the top half of the eighth inning, Findlay led off with two consecutive fly outs against returning Coldwater starter Cale Wenning.
Ben Best, already with a pair of hits on his resume punched a two strike offering from Wenning into the outfield and found his time on the bases short lived thanks to an ensuing triple by teammate Austin Sertell just pitches later to tie the game 8-8.
Jack Rhoades began the evening on the mound and victim of four runs given up through his four inning stint for Findlay. Rhoades biggest contribution to the game came on the first pitch offered to him by Wenning as a slow roller off his bat towards second base was fielded by the Cavs first baseman and forced a foot race to the bag that ended with both players diving to the base. As the dust cleared from the play, Rhoades was deemed safe as Sertell crossed the plate for the winning run.
Coldwater (21-4) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the games first at bat against Rhoades walked both AJ Harlamert and Baylen Blockberger to open the frame. Harlamert swiped two of his five bases on the day before being brought in to give his team the go ahead.
Findlay rocked the first two pitches of the game offered by Cale Wenning to give themselves base runners and tied the game in the bottom half of the inning on a 2-RBI single by future Findlay Oiler Luke Weihrauch.
Two runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings on two extra base hits, two hit by pitches, an error, and a sacrifice fly pushed the game into the bottom of the fifth with the Cavaliers leading 6-2.
Working now against Coldwater reliever Owen Kunk, the Trojan bats sprung to life for a trio of runs while amassing four hits and a walk to climb back to a one run deficit at 6-5. Next time around the hosts jumped into the lead 7-6 thanks to a pair of Cavalier errors and an RBI single from Ben Best.
AJ Harlamert tied the Coldwater season lead for hit by pitches in the game as he was plunked three times by different pitchers. In the bottom of the seventh after being hit for a second time, the catcher swiped his final pair of bases and was brought home to score on a wild pitch to tie the contest at 7-7.
Findlay (13-11) turned the ball over to Andrew Kayser for the eighth inning, and though he allowed a pair of hits by Miles Pottkotter and Brady Lefeld that led to a sacrifice fly RBI from Cole Etzler, he was able to shut down the Cavs high powered offense to set up the drama yet to come.
Kayser took the win for the Trojans out of the bullpen while Wenning was saddled with the loss for Coldwater after allowing seven hits and four earned runs across a total of 4.2 innings.
Coldwater will travel to Van Wert on Tuesday to conclude their regular season while Findlay jaunts north to Toledo St. Francis for their tournament opener.
Linescore:
CW 2-0-0-2-2-0-1-1 8-6-1
FIN 2-0-0-0-3-2-0-2 9-15-1