By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
MILLBURY — Caleb Tobias led the Lake baseball team on the mound and at the plate Wednesday in a 12-1 win in five innings over Fostoria.
The game, originally scheduled to be played at Fostoria, was switched to Lake amid temperatures in the 40s with the Redmen serving as the home team on the scoreboard.
“I’m really happy with the flexibility of our guys in the change of venue and getting out here, getting the field ready and still getting themselves ready,” Lake coach Casey Witt said. “They had a really good approach. I’m really proud with our guys and happy of the outcome.”
The Flyers (14-1, 5-1 NBC) picked up their third straight win and finished a season sweep of Fostoria behind the play Tobias, who finished 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, one run and two runs knocked in.
The senior also went four innings on the mound to pick up the victory, striking out four while allowing just five hits and one run. Jack Sobczak finished off the Redmen with a trio of strikeouts in the fifth.
“Tobs throws strikes,” Witt said. “He’s easy to play behind because he works fast and he throws strikes, and he did just that today, gave us a chance to go compete and get a win.”
Lake, which produced six extra base hits and nine stolen bases, took a 7-1 lead through two innings, tacked on four more in the fourth and added an insurance run in the fifth.
An RBI grounder from Jay Blazevich and a two-run double to left from Aiden Young gave the Flyers three runs in the first. Fostoria (4-7, 1-5 NBC) got one back with a sacrifice fly in the bottom half.
Things got wild in the second, literally, as Lake loaded the bases with nobody out and plated all three runs on three consecutive wild pitches. The Flyers then scored on a double play two batters later for the six-run margin.
“I think we hit the ball really well,” Tobias said. “Our approach in the box was very good. It was a nice day.”
After stranding a pair in the third, Lake got a leadoff triple from Drew Tajblik in the fourth, and he scored one batter later on a sacrifice fly from Blazevich.
A single and a walk then set up a two-run double from Tobias. An error then allowed Tobias to come around for a 10-run lead.
Another RBI grounder from Blazevich made it 12-1 in the fifth.
“We worked really hard in the cage yesterday working on specific counts, and I thought we did a terrific job at the plate with that,” Witt said. “I thought we were really engaged on defense and made plays when we needed to.”
Despite not getting a hit, Blazevich led the team with three RBI. Young finished with two as those two joined Tobias as the three Flyers with multiple runs knocked in. Leadoff hitter Gavin Kohlhofer led the team with three runs scored, buoyed by a pair of walks and a double.
Wednesday’s win for Lake, along with Genoa’s win over Rossford, helped reduce the crowd atop the league standings as Lake and Eastwood are now the only two remaining one-loss teams in the NBC.
