Weather halts Bellevue-Clyde with game tied in 6th inning

CLYDE — To be continued. Bellevue entered Tuesday's Sandusky Bay Conference Lake Division contest against rival Clyde with a chance to clinch a share of the league championship. The two teams will have to wait at least one more day to find a winner as the game was tied 1-1 in the middle of the sixth inning, but stopped due to continued thunder and lightning in the area. The game is scheduled to resume at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Clyde. It brought a halt to a tremendous pitching matchup between Bellevue's Cooper Winke and Clyde's Blake Gerstenberger. "It will be an interesting tomorrow coming back for an inning and a half," Bellevue coach Andy Dennings said. "I thought we played well. I'd like to have kept playing. I thought we started to get going and our at-bats were good against (Gerstenberger). We had strikeouts, but I thought a lot of guys were putting barrels on the ball. I felt good if we were able to play on." The Redmen (12-6, 7-2 SBC Lake) trailed early, but tied the game in the top of the fifth. Tyson Baptista reached on an infield single before moving to second on a sacrifice bunt. He scored when Ike Brown singled into right field. Bellevue had a chance to take the lead as Sam Bollinger also reached on an infield single, but Gerstenberger bounced back with a grounder to keep the game tied. It was the only rough inning Gerstenberger had. He struck out seven in six innings of work. Gerstenberger was able to throw his off-speed pitch for a strike consistently, regardless of the count. "It was bar none his best start of the year," Clyde coach Jake Strayer said. "He kind of pitched backwards from his usual self. He's usually a power guy, but he had his off-speed working tonight. He was throwing it for strikes. He was getting guys to swing over top of it and he was spotting it." That allowed Winke to settle in even more. He faced the minimum over the last three innings he pitched. After hitting Gerstenberger to open the fourth inning, the Redmen turned a double play on a popped bunt. Winke didn't allow a hit over five innings of work. He struck out six. That came after 6 1/3 innings of no-hit ball April 9 when Bellevue topped the Fliers 4-0. "I thought he pitched really well," said Dennings of the sophomore. "That's one of the better outings he's had here lately, which wasn't a surprise. He was ready to go and it was a big game. He was well-rested. He came out and threw well. He competed his butt off." Clyde (6-14, 2-7) got on the board in the bottom of the second thanks to a few miscues by Bellevue. Dawson Jeffrey walked, went to second on a errant pick-off attempt and to third on a wild pitch. Winke got a strikeout for the second out of the inning, but Kam Shortridge drew a walk. Nico Carroll then laid down a bunt. It was bobbled by Winke and the throw wasn't clean, allowing Jeffrey to score. Bellevue limited the damage as Winke tallied his third strikeout of the day to keep it 1-0. "He has thrown well against us both times this year," said Strayer of facing Winke. "He was throwing strikes today, but our guys were aggressive going after the ball. We didn't strike out much. We were putting balls in play. We hit a couple balls right at guys. They'll fall eventually." Strayer played for Dennings at Bellevue. The two know each other well, which adds another layer to the dynamic of Wednesday's resumption. "I know how much these titles mean to him, or any coach," Strayer said. "t's definitely a different dynamic. If it's not a 1-1 game in the bottom of the sixth, it's a whole lot different coming back. When we come back, it's go time."