By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
ROSSFORD — The heart of the lineup delivered in a big way for the Lake baseball team on Wednesday as the Flyers produced a 16-2 road victory over Rossford in five innings.
“I’m really happy for our guys,” Lake coach Casey Witt said. “I thought that we put together a full game from a perspective of throwing strikes on the mound, making plays, having good at bats, and being aggressive on the bases. That’s what we envision as a coaching staff, and I think that was our best performance of the year.”
Lake’s 3-4-5 trio of Jay Blazevich, Ryan Wagner and Jack Sobczak combined to hit 6-for-12 with six runs scored and nine runs knocked in.
Drew Tajblik had three of Lake’s six walks from the two hole while Grant Kohlhofer and Aiden Young scored a pair of runs apiece. Kaiden Cousino tacked on a two-RBI performance.
“We feel that one of our strengths on offense is our speed,” Witt said. “When the middle of the lineup gets rolling and lets that speed just run wild on the bases, it puts a lot of pressure on opposing defenses, and that was apparent tonight.”
The Flyers (8-0) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, highlighted by a two-run single from Sobczak and an RBI single from Wagner.
“I think we had some good at bats,” Blazevich said. “We were really seeing the ball well. Our coach has been putting in good work in the cage, and he’s been giving us counts to work on and telling us to go up there with a plan, and that’s what we did.”
After Rossford got a run back on a balk in the home half of the first, Lake added two more in the third, eight in the fourth and two in the fifth.
In the eight-run fourth, Lake produced two-run singles from Blazevich and Cousino, an RBI single from Sobczak, and RBI groundouts from Wagner and Kohlhofer.
Ronnie Hawkins had an RBI single for Rossford (4-2) in the fourth inning for his team’s second and final run. The Bulldogs had five players record one hit apiece.
“We didn’t do so well,” Rossford coach Marc Diels said. “Sometimes that happens. I thought we were too tentative, and we tried to get it all back in one chunk. When you get down like that, you have to chip away.”
Wagner went the first four innings on the mound for Lake to pick up the win. He allowed five hits and a walk while striking out five. Tajblik walked one in relief in the fifth but struck out the side otherwise to finish off the game.
