COLUMBUS — Perrysburg’s baseball team had played consistently well this season.
Unfortunately for the Yellow Jackets, they ran out of timely hitting and solid defense Saturday morning.
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GALLERY
They left eight runners on base and committed three errors en route to a 6-2 loss to Liberty Township
Lakota East in the championship game of the Division I state tournament at Huntington Park.
On the other hand, Lakota capitalized on seven hits, five walks, three hit batters and the errors to
score its runs. The Thunderhawks also played excellent defense to support the pitching of Evan Hills.

Perrysburg, ranked fifth, finished 26-4. Lakota improved to 24-7.
The Yellow Jackets had 10 hits, but it wasn’t enough. Every play that went Perrysburg’s way this season
went against the Yellow Jackets in the state final.
“We played pretty well today, but we had some little mistakes,” Perrysburg senior Alec Schmenk said. “We
out-hit them and everything, but it wasn’t going our way.”
Lakota second baseman Craig Thomson had two of the best plays.
Trailing 2-0 with runners on the corner and two out in the bottom of the third, the Yellow Jackets’ Matt
Kruzel hit a rocket that seemed headed for right field.
But Thomson went to his left and dove on the ground to snag the ball and then threw to first to retire
Kruze.
Thomson made another diving stop to end the game, going to his left again and throwing to first to retire
Zach Kolvey. Thomson’s throw pulled first baseman Mitch Geers off the bag, but Geers was able to get his
foot back on the base a split-secnd ahead of Kolvey in a call disputed by the Yellow Jackets.
“We had our timely hits, but they were making great plays on them,” Schmenk said. “There’s nothing we
could do about it.”
“A couple of close calls that didn’t go our away, a couple of plays they made, if those go our away we
win today,” Kolvey said. “But they didn’t. We didn’t deserve to win because of those things.”
In the second inning, the Yellow Jackets scored despite having three singles.?Their leadoff hitter
singled in the inning, but was picked off by catcher Jarret Rindfleisch for the first out. Schmenk and
Matt Garbig added two-out singles later in the inning.
“That inning killed us,” Perrysburg coach Dave Hall said.
Perrysburg — in a season filled with terrific finishes and late-inning rallies — tried to work its magic
one more time.
After Lakota scored three times in the top of the seventh on three runs, two hits, one error, one hit
batter and one walk for a 6-0 lead, Perrysburg attempted to rally with both of its runs.
Ryan Young led off with a single to center and took second on Kevin Schenk’s walk.
Freshman pinch-hitter Mark Delas crushed a double off the right-center field fence to score Young and
advance Schenk to third.
That brought up Schmenk, the team’s leadoff hitter, to the plate. He blooped a ball into center field,
but Jesse Rait hustled in to rob Schmenk of a hit.
After a fly out to center, Garbig’s sacrifice fly to center scored Schenk before the grounder to second
ended the game.
“We were starting to get excited,” Kolvey said.
The Yellow Jackets had rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday for a 4-3
win over Willoughby South in the semifinals.
Delas lined a pinch-hit double during that comeback, which ended with Garbig’s three-run double.
“We were thinking about that with the quality of hitters (Perrysburg) sends to the plate,” Lakota coach
Ray Hamilton said.
Lakota parlayed two singles and a double into a 2-0 lead in the second.
Ninth-place hitter Zac Kloenne hit a two-run, two-out single on a 3-2 pitch after trailing 0-2 in the
count.
Kruzel, Perrysburg’s pitcher, appeared to have Kloenne struck out on the 0-2 and 1-2 pitches, but the
umpire ruled both pitches balls. The count then went to 3-2 and Kloenne fouled off a 3-2 pitch before
singling.
Schmenk, the team’s second baseman, was within inches of making a spectacular catch on the play. He went
to his right and dove in the air, but the ball just missed his glove.
The Thunderhawks scratched out a run in the fourth, with eighth-place hitter Brian Evans stroking an RBI
single to right. Thomson scored the run after reaching on a fielder’s choice.
“Starting in a 3-0 hole is difficult,” Kolvey said.
“They’re a good ballclub and we knew that coming in,” Hall said. “What we didn’t need to do was get
behind early.”
Kolvey, Kruzel and Schmenk each were 2-for-4.
Lakota’s rally in the seventh was fueled when Perrysburg failed to turn an inning-ending double play with
runners on first and third and no runs in.
But the Yellow Jackets’ shortstop couldn’t handle the throw from the second baseman and no outs were
recorded.
“If somehow, we could have not given them three runs in the seventh, it would have been pretty
interesting in the bottom of the seventh,” Hall said.