Brown's RBI single lifts Bellevue to 1-0 victory

SANDUSKY — Something had to give. Bellevue and Sandusky had numerous opportunities throughout, but the game was scoreless after seven innings. The Redmen had a chance in the eighth inning and Ike Brown cashed in. With two outs, Brown singled up the middle to score Tyson Baptista, lifting Bellevue to a 1-0 extra-inning Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division win Wednesday. "I took it like any other at-bat," Brown said. "I was looking for a fastball, but he threw a lot of curves. I got the fastball and put my barrel on it." The win creates a three-way tie in the loss column atop the SBC Lake. Bellevue improved to 10-5 overall and 6-2 in league play. The Redmen are tied in the loss column with Perkins (13-5, 7-2) and Norwalk (11-4, 6-2). "Anytime we come up here is a battle and this is what we expect when we come up here on Sandusky's home field," Bellevue coach Andy Dennings said. "It's always a competitive game. Give our kids credit. They battled all the way through." Sandusky (11-11, 1-8) pitcher Rocco D'Amico got the first out of the eighth inning before Baptista walked. Perhaps just wanting to advance Baptista via a bunt, Bellevue got a free base when D'Amico was called for his second balk of the game. D'Amico bounced back to record his seventh strikeout, but Brown's single opened the game's scoring. That was all the support Caden Lindsey needed to finish the win on the mound for the Redmen. He got the first two Blue Streaks with ease before a single by Dante Shipp. Lindsey bounced back to get a first-pitch fielder's choice to end the game. The hit by Shipp was the only one Lindsey allowed in four innings of work. He walked three and struck out five. That came after four shutout innings by Cooper Winke, who allowed just two hits while striking out eight. "There's a couple times when Sandusky had second and third with less than two outs and we were able to get a strikeout or something we could handle in the infield," Dennings said. "I give them a lot of credit." Sandusky had its chances. The Blue Streaks left 11 runners on base, including seven in scoring position. Sandusky advanced a runner into scoring position in six of the first seven innings. "We left way too many on base," Sandusky coach Zack Moots said. "I know a lot was with two outs, but we have to be able to scratch across some runs. We have to do it some way. We weren't aggressive early in the count. We were watching too many and getting in bad counts." Bellevue also struggled to get clutch hits. The Redmen had a runner on third in a stretch of four out of five innings without scoring. "We had chances and we could not come up with the big hit," Dennings said. "At this point in the season when you're playing, it's not a beauty pageant. It's just win-and-advance type of thing. Find a way to be one run better." D'Amico went 7 2/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits. He struck out seven and powered through 122 pitches. "I think that was his best pitching performance of the year," Moots said. "He got into a couple jams and battled out. Our outfield played outstanding today. Rocco held it down and kept us in it. He's starting to feel it and we're getting him built up after not pitching for two years (due to injury)." There are positives to take for Sandusky over the past week. After getting run-ruled at home by crosstown rival Perkins, the Blue Streaks topped Clyde and lost close conference games to Norwalk (3-2) and Bellevue. "We've had close games and we've battled," Moots said. "We've got to work on some things. Even when we won at Clyde, I told the guys that we can make mistakes, but we have to learn from them. Hopefully today and the Norwalk game, we can learn from them. We have to be aggressive early." The Redmen play another big game Friday when they host Norwalk, which won the first meeting between the two 6-2 on April 23 in Norwalk. "One of our goals every year is to find ourselves playing for something in mid-May," Dennings said. "We lost two (league games) early that we would love to have back. That's part of the learning process. We've had some tough wins. "We keep grinding through and find ourselves playing for something Friday. But, we had to get this one first and it wasn't easy." Bellevue 000 000 01 — 1 5 1Sandusky 000 000 00 — 0 3 1 WP: Lindsey. LP: D'Amico