Walk's heroics lift Sandusky to win

CASTALIA — Just keep fighting. Sandusky was down to its last out and then its last strike at one point Monday, but the Blue Streaks kept battling. After Mykell Ott drew a walk, Dennarius Walk walloped a two-out, three-run double to give Sandusky the lead. The Blue Streaks added a key insurance run and came away with a 6-5 non-league win over Margaretta. "I knew my team needed me the most," Walk said. "I thought he was going to give me an outside pitch because nobody is giving me inside pitches. Luckily, he gave me an inside pitch. I turned on it, got the front foot down, hit it as hard as I could and ran." Sandusky (6-1) seemed headed to a tough, self-inflicted loss when the seventh inning began. After Margaretta (1-6) pitcher Brayden Windau got an easy groundout, the odds seemed even more in the Polar Bears' favor. But, Quentavion Fisher singled before Keelan Lockhart walked. A flyout brought up the second out. A grounder on the infield looked like the third out, but Rocco D'Amico reached safely as Fisher scored to cut Margaretta's lead to 4-2. Ott was deep in the count before fighting back to draw a walk and load the bases for Walk. Already on base twice with hits, Walk tattooed a 1-0 pitch to the fence as three runs came in to score and give Sandusky a 5-4 advantage. "That was one of the more clutch hits we've seen in the past few years," Sandusky coach Zack Moots said. "Down to two outs, he put a good swing on one. You can't ask for much more. That's why he's in the 3-hole and why he's one of the better hitters in our area right now." Walk advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored when reliever Robbie LaCourse was called for a walk. That run proved to be huge for the Blue Streaks as Margaretta didn't go down without a fight. Ott retired the first batter before Zach Gray reached on a single, ending Ott's day. D'Amico, who had moved to second base from catcher in preparation of needing to finish the game on the mound, made the move to pitcher. After Gray went to second on a wild pitch, Mason Kromer reached on an infield single. Then, Memphis McKenzie blooped a single into center field to score Gray and bring the Polar Bears within 5-4. D'Amico settled down though, striking out the last two Margaretta batters with the tying run in scoring position, slamming the door shut on Sandusky's victory. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to close the door," Margaretta coach Ray Neill said. "We walked three guys in the top of the seventh inning and to their credit, they got a couple base hits in that inning and one big one. We played well even for seven innings, I guess. We just gave up a bad one." Ott was solid on the mound for the Blue Streaks. After walking seven in his last outing, Ott walked just three while striking out three in 6 1/3 innings for Sandusky. "Mykell really wanted it," Moots said. "He's been a bulldog for us. He had a good game and got us out of some sticky situations there. We didn't play great defense behind him. It was the fourth time through the order and they were starting to time him up." Margaretta didn't trail until the Blue Streaks' heroics in the top of the seventh inning. Bren Smith and Carter Kelley had run-scoring singles as the Polar Bears led 4-1 after four innings. Sandusky was hurting itself in the field, giving Margaretta extra outs while running into miscues itself. The Blue Streaks had three errors in the third inning alone. In the top of the fourth, Sandusky ran into a pair of outs on the basepaths, halting what could've been a big inning. "We don't want to give away outs on either side," Moots said. "We have to clean that up. We're still early in the season, but we're late enough where we shouldn't be making those mistakes, especially with some of the experienced guys we have. "Hopefully we can get that out of our way and keep pushing on." The Polar Bears hit better than they had over the first few games of the season, but still find themselves with one win this season. Margaretta is back in action Wednesday at Willard. "We had a couple chances to score some runs earlier," Neill said. "We had bases loaded maybe twice and we didn't get that big hit. To Sandusky's credit, they did get the big hit." Windau struck out six in his 6 2/3 innings. It was the second-straight solid outing for Windau after picking up a win over Lakota last week. "He was mixing it up and up and down in the batter's box," Moots said. "He was keeping us off balance. We had a few guys out in front and his breaking ball was good. But his high pitch was good. We popped up way too many pitches there. He definitely had us reeling there for a little bit." Sandusky 000 100 5 — 6 7 4Margaretta 002 200 1 — 5 9 1 WP: Ott (2-0). LP: Windau (1-1). SV: D'Amico. 2B: (S) Crawford, Walk 2