DEFIANCE — It was a case of too little, too late for Bowling Green Saturday
afternoon.
The Bobcats fell behind early in their Division II baseball sectional semifinal
against Wauseon, and despite a furious last-inning rally, lost 7-6 at Defiance
High School.
The loss dropped BG’s record to 12-8 overall, ending its tournament after one game.
“We had opportunities to score runs early in the game, and we didn’t. We needed to
put the ball in play more, shorten up, and we didn’t,” BG coach Josh Iler said.
“Give those guys credit, their pitcher went five solid innings. Then he started
missing his spots a little bit, and we took advantage then, but we needed to
take advantage early,” Iler continued. “That’s the difference in the ball game.”
Wauseon scored twice in the top of the first and built its lead to as large as 7-2 in
the sixth inning.
Starting pitcher Jake Trejo kept BG’s hitters at bay until late. The Bobcats scored
once in the sixth and three times in the seventh to cut the lead to one run.
Trejo recorded the final out of the game via strikeout with the potential tying
run on second and the winning run on first.
Trejo went all seven innings, allowing four earned runs on seven hits. He struck out
seven and walked four, with three of the walks coming in the final two innings
when Wauseon also committed two of its three errors in the game.
“He does a great job of just pounding the zone and getting ahead of hitters,” Wauseon
coach Trent Thomas said of Trejo. “He can throw all four pitches. He doesn’t
throw overly hard, but he can throw them in any count. So that keeps people
off-balanced.
“We saw (BG) play one game and we thought we could keep them off-balanced, and that’s
what we did today.”
Wauseon’s offense did do damage against BG’s pitching, finishing with 11 hits.
BG starter Mason Mayberry allowed five runs on eight hits with two strikeouts and one
walk in four-plus innings pitched, while reliever Daniel McKinney allowed two
earned runs and three hits with five strikeouts and two walks in three innings.
“Mason and Daniel, to get 11 hits off of those guys, means the opponents did
something at the plate that they were supposed to do as hitters — take advantage
of mistakes, and with two strikes put the ball in play,” Iler said.
Josh Cales went 3-for-4 with a double and a run batted in, Collin Bzovi drove in
three runs, and Trejo and Axel Bueter each had two hits to lead Wauseon’s
offense.
“Those two guys are really good. We knew we were going to have to battle,” Thomas
said of BG’s Mayberry and McKinney. “We had seen two guys on Thursday night from
Archbold that threw 80 (miles per hour)-plus, so that helped us a little bit
getting used to that.”
BG got run-scoring hits from Dylan Ringler, McKinney, and Jake Ireland in the final
two innings, but the Bobcats finished with eight runners left on base in the
game.
Seven different players had a hit for BG, with Andy Fisher and McKinney hitting a
double each.
This was BG’s first year competing in the Division II sectional after dropping down
from Division I.
“We stepped down from Division I to Division II, and it didn’t make it any better.
People thought, ‘Oh it could be easy.’ But no, they have a very high-caliber
baseball clubs in this division,” Iler said.
“Of course, we’d like to get past the first game, but you have to play seven innings.
You have to take advantage of those opportunities, not just the last inning.”
The Bobcats are back in action in a regular-season Northern Lakes League game at
Anthony Wayne on Monday. AW can clinch at least a share of the NLL title with a
victory.
“I hope to see the seniors show up and continue to provide leadership,” Iler said.
“We’re going to work some younger guys into positions, just to get some work and
look towards the summer and into next year.
“But we’ve got a quality league, too. We can’t just show up and expect to win. You’ve
got to work hard every day.”
Wauseon, 15-4, face second-seeded Bryan in the sectional finals Wednesday at
Defiance.
“That’s a big win for us,” Thomas said. “They’re coming out here in their first year
in Division II, and they play in a very, very tough league, and we know they
battled through tough teams all year. Maybe their record doesn’t show it as well
as everybody else out here, but we knew they were going to be tough.”
WAUSEON 7, BGHS 6
WAUSEON 200 122 0—7 11 3
BGHS 101 001 3—6 7 1
BATTING LEADERS
HITS — (W) Cales 3, Trejo 2, Bueter 2, Tuckerman, Suntken, Bzovi, Shadbolt; (BG)
Dunn, Fisher, McKinney, Ireland, Dill, Ringler, Donaldson. 2B — (W) Bzovi,
Cales, Trejo; (BG) Fisher, McKinney. RUNS — (W) Trejo 2, Tuckerman 2, Suntken,
Bueter, Shadbolt; (BG) Fisher 2, McKinney 2, Dunn, Mayberry. RBI — (W) Bzovi 3,
Suntken, Cales, Bueter, Tefft; (BG) McKinney 3, Ireland, Ringler. SB — (W)
Bueter; (BG) Mayberry, Ringler. SAC — (W) Suntken; (BG) Ringler, Fisher. SAC FLY
— (W) Bzovi, Suntken; (BG) McKinney. HBP — (W) Tuckerman (by Mayberry). DP —
BGHS. LOB — Wauseon 8, BGHS 8.
PITCHING SUMMARY
IP H R ER BB SO
WAUSEON
Trejo (WP) 7 7 6 4 4 7
BGHS
Mayberry (LP) 4 8 5 5 1 2
McKinney 3 3 2 2 2 5
Mayberry pitched to 3 batters in the 5th.
