HOLLAND, OH - MAY20: Eastwood senior Delaney Maynard (15) waits in line to receive her runner-up medal during the awards ceremony following the conclusion of a district championship game against Tinora on May 209, 2023 at Blue Devils Fields in Holland, Ohio. Tinora defeated Eastwood 14-4 in a mercy-rule five innings to advance to the regional semifinals. (Photo by: Scott W. Grau/Sentinel-Tribune)
HOLLAND — For the second straight season, Tinora ended Eastwood’s tournament run, routing the Eagles, 14-4, at the Springfield High School Baseball and Softball Complex Saturday.
In both Division III district games, Tinora, 18-7, was virtually handed the championship. In the championship Friday, Eastwood committed seven errors. Only four of the Rams’ 14 runs were earned.
During Tinora’s 9-8 district semifinal win over Oak Harbor earlier in the week, the Rams had a similar fortune as the Rockets committed five errors in one inning.
All seven Eastwood errors Friday were committed in the first three innings as the Rams opened a 14-0 lead. Tinora also had seven hits, including three home runs, in the first three innings.
“The girls executed the game plan,” Tinora coach Tony Fairchild said. “We practiced hard yesterday, and they came out on fire. What can you say?”
Eastwood coach Joe Wyant said his team had one other game where his team did not come to play this year. In that game, Eastwood had just three errors, but Bowling Green scored eight runs on three hits while Eastwood left 16 runners stranded in an 8-4 Bobcat win in late March.
The Eagles still had a chance to win against BG, but against Tinora the game appeared to be over soon after it started unless the Eagles could miraculously come back from a 14-run deficit.
The Rams scored three in the first, seven in the second, and four in the third, and they still had six baserunners stranded after three innings.
“I haven’t been in too many games like this,” Eastwood coach Joe Wyant said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a game snowball like this in 25 years.”
After his team was awarded the district runner-up trophy, Wyant brought his team into a huddle for one of those long talks.
“So, I told them, ‘It just snowballed.’ It got away the first and second innings, really, but even after the first inning (3-0 Tinora lead) I thought the game would be a 3-2, 4-3 ballgame — a tight ballgame,” Wyant said.
“So, I thought we were in trouble after the first, but things snowballed. There were a couple plays that we just didn’t make that we normally make. We’ve had a good defensive team all year,” Wyant continued.
“We only average 1.2 errors a game, and then today we had seven. And they hit. They came out ready to play. I didn’t see that in the other scouting or anything else, or in games I saw, they didn’t hit like this. But they came to play, and they got on us early.”
Meanwhile, Tinora pitcher Scylea Zolman did not allow a hit until the fourth inning, but the Eagles scored two runs each in the fourth and fifth innings on five hits, two walks and an error by the Rams.
The Eagles needed to get the margin under 10 runs after five innings to avoid the mercy rule, and had a runner, sophomore Adyson Bowe, on base with no outs but Zolman got a ground out and two strikeouts to end the game.
The Rams move on to face Huron in a regional semifinal next Wednesday. The Eagles, 25-4, travel to Genoa Monday, and an Eastwood win will secure an outright Northern Buckeye Conference championship.
“I told them, ‘It’s now done, just wipe it away, it’s over and done, let’s turn it around and get ready for Monday,’” Wyant said.
“We want to win the league outright, and that is all we have to do or we share it with somebody (Otsego or Elmwood). We just need to turn it around. We had one other bad game all year, and this is the second one of 29 games.”
Junior Cassi Kieper started in the circle for Eastwood, striking out three, walking none, and allowing seven hits through two innings, but only two of 12 runs scored on her watch were charged against her.
Freshman Mackenzie Hady came in to pitch in the third, striking out one, walking none, and allowing four hits and two runs, but she held the Rams scoreless in the fourth and fifth innings.
Ashland University-bound Eastwood senior Delaney Maynard went 2-for-2 with a double, RBI, and she reached all three plate appearances, including a walk in the first inning, scoring two runs.
Hady had a double and RBI, Bowe had a base hit and RBI, junior Lilly Escobedo had a base hit, and senior Katie Oestrich reached on two walks for the Eagles.
Every single Tinora starter had at least one hit. For the Rams, Paige Gamby was 3-for-4 with two home runs, two runs scored, four RBIs, and she reached on an error.
Logan McQuillan was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and she scored three runs, Paige Carpenter was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, Zoe Roesti was 2-for-4, reached on an error and scored twice, and Tegan Norden was 2-for-4 and reached base three times.
Anna Frazer had a base hit and was hit by a pitch, scoring twice, Marin Pittman had a base hit, Zolman had a base hit and two RBIs, and Mickey Starkey had a base hit and sacrifice bunt.
Zolman got the win by striking out five, walking two, allowing five hits, and three earned runs.
