Roundup: track, baseball, softball, tennis

Van Wert independent sports

Van Wert’s strong track season continued at the Ada Invitational, Lincolnview’s baseball team fell to Parkway, Van Wert’s softball team dropped two to St. Henry and the Cougar tennis team completed play at the WBL tournament on Saturday.

Track

ADA — Van Wert’s fine track and field season continued at Ada War Memorial Park on Saturday, with the Cougars finishing first among 15 teams and the Lady Cougars placing third out of 14 teams.

The Cougars finished with 133 team points, far more than runner-up Arlington (76). Bluffton (73) edged Kenton and Allen East for third place (72 each).

Carey won the girls’ team title with 112.3 points, while Spencerville finished as the runner-up with 102.5 points, followed by Van Wert (99), Kenton (96) and New Knoxville (58).

Van Wert finished with a handful of individual champions including Tyson Jackson won the 110 meter hurdles (16.65); Connor Pratt (400 meter dash, 52.34); Trey Laudick (200 meter dash, 23.54); Gage Wannemacher (3200 meter run, 10:22.93) and Dru Johnson (long jump, 19-09). The 4×800 meter relay team won (Wannemacher, Laudick, Gage Springer, Hunter Sherer, 8:33.02) as did the 4×400 meter relay team (Ethan Brown, Nate Phillips, Laudick, Pratt, 3:30.74).

The Lady Cougars were led by Saylor Wise, who won the 800 meter run in 2:27.23 and the 4×800 meter relay team (Kyra Welch, Tyra McClain, Carly Smith, Wise), who won in 10:13.65.

Full results can be found at https://www.baumspage.com/track/ada/inv/2021/2021%20Results.pdf.

Baseball

Parkway 4 Lincolnview 3

ROCKFORD — A single by Samples in the bottom of the seventh inning scored Nichols and gave Parkway a 4-3 walk off win over Lincolnview on Saturday.

It was the second walk off loss for the Lancers in two days.

The game was scoreless until the top of the fourth, when Lincolnview’s Collin Overholt scored on an RBI single by Carson Fox. However, Parkway answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Riley Samples scored on a wild pitch to tie the game, then Bryce Stearns singled and drove in Dylan Hughes and Chaz Neuenschwander.

After a scoreless fifth inning, Lincolnview tied the game with Dane Ebel’s RBI single that plated Overholt and a Parkway error that allowed Ebel to score.

Each team had just five hits in the game. Overholt and Fox each finished with two, while Samples had a pair of hits for the Panthers. Ebel went the distance on the mound for the Lancers, striking out 10 and walking two, while Justan Felver struck out seven and walked just one for Parkway.

Lincolnview (15-7) will host Crestview today and a win would give the Lancers an outright NWC championship. Parkway (9-10) is scheduled to host Wayne Trace today.

Softball

St. Henry 7 Van Wert 2
St. Henry 17 Van Wert 2 (five innings)

ST. HENRY — Van Wert dropped both games of a doubleheader, falling 7-2 and 17-2 to St. Henry on Saturday.

In the first game the Redskins scored all seven of their runs in the first three innings. Brenna Bollenbacher singled and drove in Sydney Savage in the fourth inning and Abbi Marbaugh scored on a seventh inning grouder by Adeline Collins to account for Van Wert’s final run.

In the second game Lorynn German singled home Carlee Young to give Van Wert a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but St. Henry answered with five runs in the bottom half of the inning, then added four more in the second, third and fourth winnings for a 17-2 win.

Van Wert’s other run came in the second on Alexa Gearhart’s RBI single that played Bollenbacher.

The Lady Cougars (3-15) are scheduled to play at St. Marys Memorial today.

Tennis

LIMA — Shawnee finished as the Western Buckeye League regular season and WBL tournament champion, while Ottawa-Glandorf finished as the runner-up in both after Saturday’s tournament at UNOH.

Van Wert finished fourth in the tournament and fifth overall.

In the semifinal round at first singles, Jace Fast lost to No. 1 seed Gabe Burke 6-1, 6-2, then Fast fell to Ottawa-Glandorf’s Carter Welch 6-7 (3), 6-3, 3-6 to finish fourth.

At second singles, Micah Rager lost to No. 2 seed Collin Welch 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals, but finished third with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Connor Coffey of Wapakoneta.

At third singles, No. 1 seed Eli Schmenk of Ottawa-Glandorf defeated Van Wert’s Bryce Miller 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals. Miller then lost to Jacob Garver of Bath 6-4, 6-1 to finish fourth.

Van Wert’s first doubles team of Kaden Thomas and Sam Moonshower and the second doubles team of Ian Cowan and Evan Knittle each finished sixth.