Post 83 looking toward postseason

PERKINS TWP. — Post 83 will get to hit the reset button. That's because Wednesday night was the Sandusky American Legion baseball team's final regular season game. Post 83 (1-15) fell to Wayne County Post 68 by a 16-5 score in six innings at Perkins High School. The next action for Post 83 will come Thursday, July 14 in the district tournament. Simon Garza (Fremont Ross) was the standout of Wednesday night's loss, twice delivering RBI singles. Garza is a pitcher-only, but with the roster slim against Wayne County, he was pressed into action. In the third inning, Garza singled up the middle to drive home Margaretta's Austin Dillery. In the fifth, Garza poked a run-scoring single through the right side. Garza had already singled to centerfield in the second inning, giving him a 3-for-3 evening. "He came out of nowhere with a few hits today," Piotrowski said. "Was glad to see it." Post 83 couldn't keep up with Wayne County's bats. Post 68's roster included multiple players from Division III state champion Waynedale, which beat Edison in extra innings for that title, along with players from Hillsdale, Wooster and Norwayne High Schools. Cole Schwochow grinded through five innings on the mound anyway for Post 83. The lefty from Clyde had to manage as many innings as he could for Piotrowski's squad. "I pretty much had no arms left, and Cole was left," Piotrowski said. "He ate up some innings for me. He did good." The visitors scored three in the first, four in the third, one in the fourth, two in the fifth and six in the sixth — just like Tiffin Post on Tuesday night, a six-run sixth sent the game toward the run-rule ending. In addition to Garza's run-producing, Post 83 scored in the first on an RBI single from Tasavion Jones (Sandusky) that brought home Joey Schade (Huron). They scored once earlier in the third before Garza drove in Dillery, when Dillery doubled deep to center to bring Jones home after the Sandusky graduate's second hit of the day. Post 83 also scored in the second inning when a Grayson Morgan groundout brought in Garza, who had stolen second after his first of three hits. "Everyone's hitting," Piotrowski said. "(Thomas) Cozzens is hitting well on the season. (Jones) is hitting. Grayson (Morgan) is starting to pick it back up. Joey is hitting good. It's on and off, but everybody's starting to wake up." Post 83 is in a postseason district with just three teams total, also including Tiffin Post 169 and Wayne County Post 68. The district tournament starts the week of July 11. Post 83 got a bye by picking the correct playing card in a literal draw, so they'll take on the winner of Tiffin and Wayne County on Thursday, July 14. Those games will be played at either Tiffin University or Heidelberg University. In the meantime, Post 83 will hit the field at Perkins High School for practice in the hopes that their play peaks in two weeks' time. "Mainly, we're thinking about doing a couple of practices next week, just infield situational baseball," Piotrowski said. "I'll put them out in the field, I'll hit a ball and they'll react. That, BP, and that's pretty much it. Just try to work on the basics as much as we can." Wayne County 304 126 — 16 14 2Sandusky 112 010 — 5 10 4