Knights, Lancers set for district rematch

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

The stage is set for a Crestview-Lincolnview Division IV district semifinal rematch, after both baseball teams won sectional championships on Thursday.

Crestview 3 Fort Recovery 2

CONVOY – A walk-off RBI double by Trever Sheets scored Logan Gerardot from second base and gave fifth-seeded Crestview a 3-2 Division IV sectional championship win over No. 6 seed Fort Recovery on Thursday.

In addition to driving in the game winning run, Sheets pitched the first 4 1/3 innings and allowed two earned runs on three hits with five strikeouts and six walks. Carson Hunter pitched the remaining 2 2/3 innings and struck out four, walked two and gave up a pair of hits.

“Trever Sheets and Carson Hunter did a great job working through some difficult situations on the mound while our defense made the plays when needed,” Crestview head coach Jim Wharton said. “Hunter Jones behind the plate had his finest hour in his young career, blocking balls in critical situations.”

Fort Recovery scored on a sacrifice fly in the first inning then the Indians scored again in the fifth inning when Daniel Patch singled and drove in Cobe Wendel for a 2-0 lead.

Crestview tied the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth. With the bases loaded, Hunter Jones singled in Logan Gerardot, who had been hit by a pitch earlier in the inning. After that, Ayden Lichtensteiger scored on an error.

Each team had a runner on base in the sixth, but neither team was able to capitalize. In the seventh, Gerardot opened with a single then Lichtensteiger walked, setting the stage for the game winning hit by Sheets.

Gerardot finished with two of Crestview’s six hits and two runs scored. Wendel had two of Fort Recovery’s five hits in the game. Patch pitched the first five innings for the Indians and allowed a pair of runs on four hits with four strikeouts and four walks. Troy Homan pitched the final inning for Fort Recovery (9-17).

“We knew facing a high quality pitcher in Patch, it was going to take high quality approaches at the plate,” Wharton said. “We had that throughout our lineup tonight and nobody flinched.”

“I’m obviously very proud of the fight our guys had tonight,” Wharton added.

The Knights (12-10) will face Lincolnview at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Coldwater.

Lincolnview 9 Perry 2

Perry simply was no match for Landon Price on Thursday.

Price struck out 15 batters and Cole Binkley and Jared Kesler each drove in a pair of runs as No. 1 seed Lincolnview captured a Division IV sectional championship with a 9-2 win over the eighth-seeded Commodores.

Price, the Northwest Conference and Division IV Northwest District Player of the Year held Perry (12-12) to just three hits and improved to 8-0 on the season while increasing his strikeout total to 114 and maintain his 0.00 ERA.

“Landon and (catcher) Collin (Overholt) did a great job keeping the game between those two for 15 of the outs,” Lincolnview head coach Eric Fishpaw said. “The balls that were in play, I thought we did a decent job of making plays for Landon.”

After two scoreless innings the Lancers (19-8) put three runs on the board in the third. Overholt opened with a double then later scored on an RBI double by Binkley. Carson Fox scored on a grounder by Caden Hanf then Reide Jackson singled and drove in Binkley.

Both of Perry’s runs came on an error in the top of the fourth, but Lincolnview answered in the bottom half of the inning when Creed Jessee scored on a wild pitch, making it 4-2.

The Lancers put the game away with four runs in the fifth. With the bases loaded, Kesler singled and drove in Fox and Binkley, then Hanf scored on a sacrifice by Clayton Leeth to make it 7-2. An ensuing sacrifice by Jessee plated Kesler and Lincolnview’s final run came in the sixth when Austin Bockrath scored on a fly ball by Binkley.

“Cole had a really nice game at the plate,” Fishpaw said. “Overall, it was a nice team win with lots of players contributing via pinch running, defensive fielding substitutions and so on.”

Lincolnview will face county and NWC rival Crestview at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the district semifinals at Coldwater. The two teams met in the Northwest Conference finale on May 10, with the Lancers posting a 2-0 win.