Tornadoes notch 1st win

SANDUSKY – What a first win.Columbian trailed most of Wednesday's game before taking the lead.After Perkins responded, the Tornadoes answered with two runs in the top of the seventh.Isaiah Tilse shut the door from there, lifting TC to a key 4-3 Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division win."It's been like that our first four games this year," Columbian coach Nick Weber said. "We've been in it and we always have an inning where we have a let down at the end. We kept talking to finish the game. We had a moment where it felt like it again, but we rallied and had really good at-bats in the seventh inning."We put some pressure on them and executed some bunts when we needed to execute some bunts."In the top of the seventh, Jaxon Little was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a wild pitch before Jayce Arias reached on a bunt single, moving Little to third. A wild pitch with Conner Reese at the plate scored Little and moved Arias to second.After a walk, a bunt laid down by Braden Egbert was thrown home, but not in time as Arias scored. That gave the Tornadoes (1-4, 1-0 SBC Lake) a 4-3 advantage.The Tornadoes couldn't add on to the lead, but Perkins (4-2, 0-1) wasn't able to find the same magic it did in the sixth inning against Tilse.Carter Koch reached on an error with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but a flyout ended the game."I feel good for these guys," Weber said. "They've been working their tail off. An 0-4 start last week was a very long week for us. To start off this week, we said we were 0-0. We wanted to get at it. They deserve it for the effort they got after it with."Kash Koch was in charge on the mound early for Perkins. The Pirates got on the board in the bottom of the first on an infield run-scoring single by Talon Walton and for a long time, that was enough for Koch.That was until he ran into some damage in the fifth inning. Little reached on an error before stealing second. After Reese singled, a perfectly executed double steal tied the game at 1.Columbian went ahead in the sixth inning, again scoring without a damaging hit. Johnny Bremyer reached on a throwing error. When an errant pick-off attempt by Koch went awry, Bremyer scrambled all the way to third.The miscues for the Pirates kept piling as a wild pitch allowed Bremyer to score and put Columbian up 2-1.Tilse then entered in relief of Jamison Woessner, who kept the Pirates' offense guessing for most of the game."We came in this week with two really good teams in the league with Perkins and Bellevue," Weber said. "We asked ourselves who we wanted to go with and we went with Jamison. Having Tilse in the back end to come in and close it wasn't a bad thing either."That didn't seem to bother Perkins, as it used small ball to take the lead.Walton walked before Kash Koch reached on a bunt single. Then on a ball hit by Quinten Binette, TC came home with the throw, but Walton was safe, tying the game.Kaden Kroeger then recorded a sacrifice fly, pushing Perkins back up 3-2."Woessner mixed up his pitches pretty well," Perkins coach TJ Blanton said. "Part of it may have been we over-prepared for Tilse and cranked up the pitching machine. A lot of guys, their first time through were out in front a little bit. That's a good mix when they have a guy (like Tilse) that throws 88 or 90 miles per hour. It can mess with the hitters a little bit."Columbian has another huge league game Friday at home against Bellevue (2-2, 1-0)."We've been harping that we needed to be more aggressive at the plate than we were the first four games," Weber said. "That is us on the bases. We have some guys that can run and run very well. But, if we're not getting on, we can't create that. Tonight, I thought we did a really nice job of getting on and taking advantage."