Raiders pull off a huge upset; Chieftains' season ends in 10-inning thriller

FINDLAY - After taking down Calvert and Hopewell-Loudon during the regular season, Lakota made history on Wednesday. The Raiders defeated a rather stunned Van Buren team 5-2 in Division VI district semifinal baseball action at Marathon Diamond Fields in Findlay."This is the first time that we have had a district win," Lakota coach Aaron Bomer said. "First, we got a sectional title win last week and it's amazing. Our boys played great baseball today with great defense and great pitching."After facing the Black Knights (25-3) on April 22nd and losing 12-2, the Raiders (15-10) had some revenge on their minds coming into the game.In the third inning, Grant Bomer and Grant Scherger scored on a Brady Kern double that went to right field.Lakota got the bats swinging early on in the first inning as Jacob Hines scored on a Scherger single to right field.Van Buren hit right back in the bottom of the first inning as Brock Daniel hit a ground ball to Lakota's shortstop. Will Rampe scored on an error."If you would have told me that we would only score two runs after averaging nine and a half per game this season, I would have thought you were lying," Van Buren coach Brooks Lance said. "We just came out a little timid I guess. We couldn't get things going and we didn't barrel up a lot of baseballs at the plate. Defensively, early, we were just a little bit timid. I felt like we were pumping the brakes a little bit."To break the tie leading into the second inning, Hines whacked a ground ball to third base and reached first on an error. After being held up at second base, Kern took the opportunity and capitalized on the error to run home.The Black Knights scored their final run of the night in the second inning as well, tying it back up 2-2 when Finn Martin stole home plate while the Raiders were busy trying to get others out.The final run of the night for the Raiders came in the fourth inning when Bomer scored on an AJ Gosche walk.It's been four years since Lakota has moved on from sectionals into districts. Bomer has been at the helm of the Raiders baseball program for that long, and this is the first time that he has been able to take the program into districts."We are a pretty good hitting team," Bomer said. "Credit to them (VB) because they are a 25-3 team for a reason, but that doesn't mean that we should be counted out either."In the other district semifinal game that was held, Elmwood edged Hopewell-Loudon out of districts at the same field with a score of 5-4. It took 10 innings to decide the winner."We just needed to get the leadoff on, and just try to push them across any way we could, but ultimately, it didn't happen." H-L coach Brock Bell said.It didn't start out that way though.In the first inning, after knocking down the first three batters for the Royals, the Chieftains (23-7) knew that they needed to take advantage. Jack Colatruglio scored the first run on a sacrifice fly to right field from Cohen Sendelbach. In the second inning, Thomas Daniel scored on an Austin Smith sacrifice fly out to left field.Then, Elmwood (19-8) got the bats hot. Aidan Marsh scored on a Zack Gross single that went to left field. Two plays later, Aden Alva smacked a double to center field, which got him two RBIs on the night when Colt Bradford and Gross scored on a throw. If that wasn't enough, they had courtesy runner Brayden Synder come in for Alva. Synder scored on a Landon Snow line drive."That was just an incredible tournament high school baseball game," Elmwood coach Matt Malecha said. "It felt like every inning had a momentum play, whether it was doubling off somewhere or playing small ball in the 10th inning, it's just a testament that every single player played their part."With two outs in the top of the 10th inning, Cadyn Stewart stood on third base, waiting for his chance to run. Bradford was at bat and grounded out to the shortstop. Sendelbach threw the ball to Daniel at first base to get Bradford out, and couldn't throw it fast enough to the catcher before Stewart scored the winning run."It looked like they started jumping on Kellen (Frankart) a little bit there and changed their approach at the plate," Bell said. "We had to change our approach a little bit with the pitch selection. All game, Kellen threw really well. To go 10 innings, you know you are doing your job right as a pitcher."It was also at the same time that Braylon Martinez threw the ball to Sendelbach to stop Snow from reaching second base.H-L scored two more in the fourth inning to tie it up. With one out, courtesy runner Noah Brown came in for Matt Wyman. Martinez grounded into a fielder's choice to third baseman Carter Goetz. Goetz then tagged Brown out while advancing to third, but not before Smith advanced to second and Shawn Pierce ran to home for a score. Pierce was a courtesy runner for Wyman.Later in the same inning, Smith scored on a Colatruglio ground ball that went to Marsh the shortstop but also went past him.There were moments when the Royals were in striking range, but the Chieftains were able to utilize double plays to stop the advance, which was key to keeping the teams tied at four each from innings five through 10."The kids were playing with heart, and they wanted it," Bell said. "Our defense played really well today, which helped out our pitcher and it helped keep the momentum on our side a little bit."Reflecting back on the season, Bell couldn't find much fault with what his team was able to do in the face of adversity."With all the injuries that we had this season, coming out with 22 wins this season and being very competitive in the games that we lost, I can't say anything bad about this team. They came out and did what they were supposed to do and they battled and they had a really good season."