MILLBURY ­— Brad Ackerman gave Lake’s baseball team the outright Northern Buckeye Conference championship
in stunning fashion Wednesday.
He delivered a three-run, walk-off home run with none out in the bottom of the eighth inning to give Lake
a 12-10 win over Eastwood. PHOTO GALLERY
The Flyers improved to 27-3 overall and finished 13-1 in the NBC. Had Lake lost, it would have shared the
championship with Genoa.Eastwood finished 7-18, 6-8.
“It felt great,” Ackerman said. “I’ve been struggling this entire year hitting-wise. Finally, I came
through.”
Each team battled back throughout the game, which featured zero 1-2-3 innings, eight pitchers, 26 hits,
10 errors and 18 men left on base.
In the end, Lake had the final answer.
“It was the ultimate team win. That’s been our focus all year,” said Lake head coach Greg Wilker. “We
find a way to pick each other up and that’s the kind of team we’ve had. That’s why we’ve been so
successful. Someone will get a big hit, someone else is going to pick us up and that’s what we’ve done
all year.”
Eastwood jumped to a two-run lead in the first off Ackerman.
Then, in the home half of the second inning, Eastwood starter Jake Schmeltz was the victim of six
unearned runs as the Flyers took a 6-2 lead. The inning was capped by a bases-loaded, two-run single
down the left-field line from Connor Bowen.
Eastwood answered with back-to-back RBI singles from Ryan Mang and Mat Drown in the next half inning
before another RBI single from Drown and an RBI groundout from Tyler Steele tied the game at six apiece
in the top of the fifth.
In the home half of the fifth, the Flyers scored three times, highlighted by RBI hits from Bowen and Adam
Duncan. However, the Eagles immediately responded with three runs in the next half inning via RBI hits
from Schmeltz and Drown, as well as a run-scoring groundout from Grant Peters.
The Eagles missed a chance to add more in the inning, though, as Bowen snagged a liner in shallow center
from the shortstop position with the bases loaded for the final out.
After Duncan, who entered in the sixth in relief, held the Eagles scoreless in the seventh, the Flyers
missed two chances to win it in the seventh. First, with runners on the corners and one out, the runner
from third failed to score on a wild pitch. After an intentional walk loaded the bases, a failed squeeze
play killed the rally.
The Eagles then took the lead in the eighth. Back-to-back hit batters opened the inning before another
RBI groundout from Peters put his team up 10-9 later in the inning.
However, the Flyers opened the home half with back-to-back singles from Anthony Pratt and Nick Walsh,
followed by Ackerman’s three-run homer to right field to walk off with a league title.
“This is one of the most resilient teams I’ve ever been around,” said Eastwood head coach Kevin Leady. “I
know we came up on the short end today, but that goes to the epitome of how the season’s gone. We’ve
battled, battled, battled. We’ve just never been able to have that clutch moment to make the plays to be
on the other side of it. We’ve always been on the short end.”
Lake was led by Bowen (3-for-4, three RBI) and Cody Witt (3-for-5, two runs, RBI), while Eastwood got
three hits apiece from Schmeltz, Mang and Drown, as well as three RBI from Drown and Peters.
Duncan improved to 2-0.
“That’s probably the most runs we’ve given up in quite a long time,” Wilker said. “We pitch extremely
well. Obviously, we’re saving our top pitchers for the tournament, but we find a way to win. Today, we
knew we were going to have to hit the ball well and we did. We hit the ball well against some good
pitching.”
LAKE 12, EASTWOOD 10, 8 innings
EASTWOOD 202 023 01—10 12 6
LAKE 060 030 03—12 14 4
BATTING LEADERS
HITS — (E) Schmeltz 3, Mang 3, Drown 3, Brown, Peters, Orcutt; (L) C. Witt 3, Bowen 3, Duncan 2, Pratt 2,
Perkins, Ackerman, Walsh, Vancena. 2B — (E) Schmeltz. 3B — (L) Bowen, HR — (L) Ackerman. RUNS — (E)
Schmeltz 4, Mang 3, Brown, Orcutt, Linhart. (L) Duncan 2, C. Witt 2, Pratt 2, Walsh 2, Ackerman 2,
Perkins, A. Witt. RBI — (E) Drown 3, Peters 3, Mang 2, Steele, Schmeltz; (L) Bowen 3, Ackerman 3, Duncan
2, C. Witt, Pratt. SB — (E) Schmeltz 3, Mang, Drown, Orcutt, Linhart; (L) Duncan. SAC — (L) Ackerman, A.
Witt, Densic. LOB — Eastwood 8, Lake 10. DP — Lake.
PITCHING SUMMARY
IP H R ER BB SO
EASTWOOD
Schmeltz
2 4 6 0 2 3
Steele 2 2-3 4 3 1 2 3
Peters (LP) 2 1-3 6 3 3 1 3
Peters pitched to 3 batters in the 8th.
LAKE
Ackerman 3 6 4 4 1 1
A. Witt 1 3 2 2 1 2
C. Witt 1 0 0 0 0 0
Serra 1-3 3 3 2 1 0
Duncan (WP) 2 2-3 0 1 1 2 1