Calvert strikes early, defeats St. Paul

OAK HARBOR — There have been plenty of comebacks. The St. Paul baseball team has turned several deficits into victories in its successful run since 2016. This season was no different en route to a Firelands Conference championship share. But Wednesday's district semifinal opponent was the wrong team to fall behind early against. State-ranked No. 6 Tiffin Calvert scored five runs in the first two innings, which proved to be the difference in an 8-3 win over the Flyers in Division IV tournament action at Oak Harbor High School. With the loss, St. Paul ends its season at 15-9. The Senecas (21-5) have defeated the Flyers in three of the past four seasons in the district round. St. Paul outhit Calvert, 10-7. However, three errors and missing the key hit with runners in scoring position was costly. "I thought coming into the game, if we were going to win, three runs, which we scored today, would have to be enough," St. Paul head coach Aaron Fries said. "I thought a 3-2 or 2-1 game, something like that, was what we needed." The Senecas made St. Paul ace Kole Maxwell work early. Starting pitcher and leadoff batter Blake Coleman — the SBC River Division Player of the Year — opened the bottom of the first with a six-pitch walk. AJ Shoemaker singled up the middle on the second pitch he saw, and Calvert quickly had runners at the corners. An error on a fly ball hit to right allowed Caden Otterbacher to reach, and Coleman and Shoemaker to score for a 2-0 lead. Maxwell proceeded to record the next three outs in order, but he needed 25 pitches in the inning. Harrison Shultz led off the bottom of the second with a six-pitch single. With two outs, a wild pitch allowed Shultz to score to make it 3-0. Coleman then singled to right field after, and he scored on an RBI double by Shoemaker for a 4-0 Calvert lead. Otterbacher was next with another double to plate Shoemaker for a 5-0 lead. "Kole didn't have his command early on, but they're a great team, so when you're a little loose in the beginning of a game, they did a great job of taking advantage of that," Fries said. "Then we were kinda swimming up stream from that point, but our kids' effort and attitudes stayed consistent throughout the game, which allowed us to stay in it. "But it was a lot to overcome when you're playing a team of this caliber." The Flyers pulled to within 5-2 in the top of the fifth. A one-out single by Gavin Thurston was followed by Jacob Bocock singling to left on a 1-2 pitch to put runners on first and second. A fielder's choice saw Thurston thrown out at third, then Ben Burger singled on a line drive to right to score Bocock. The Senecas answered with three big runs in the bottom of the sixth to pull away. For the game, St. Paul stranded seven runners on base, including three in scoring position. "I thought we did a good job of hitting, but to overcome eight runs … at some point you're going to find their fielders," Fries said. "But we needed this around 3-2 or a 2-1 type of game and didn't get that, but it wasn't because of a lack of effort or attitude." St. Paul 001 010 1 — 3 10 3Calvert 230 003 x — 8 7 0 WP: Coleman; LP: Maxwell 2B: (TC) Kitzler, Otterbacher, Shoemaker; (SP) Thurston