Ottawa Hills, Lake advance to D-III district finals

DEFIANCE — Ottawa Hills is one win away from a third consecutive district championship following an 8-1 victory over Archbold.

Standing in the way is Lake, which outlasted Otsego 10-6 in the late game of the Division III districts, setting the stage for Saturday’s noon showdown with a regional berth on the line.

“We got clutch hits, we scored in five of the six innings, and we got pretty good pitching,” summed up Ottawa Hills head coach Chris Hardman, who led the Green Bears to the state semifinals a year ago and now has his squad at 18-9 this season against a very challenging schedule.

Deadlocked at 1-1, Ottawa Hills pushed across two runs in the bottom of the third and pulled away with one in the fourth and two in each of the fifth and sixth innings.

Sebastian Stevens, who went 6⅔ innings to pick up the win on the mound, hit a two-run single in the third to put the Green Bears on top for good and added an RBI single in the sixth.

“Sebastian’s been the heart of what we do pitching and hitting,” Hardman explained. “When he is as good as he was today it’s a little easier to win.

Fellow senior Luke Gnepper aided the cause with a 3-3 performance at the plate, including a run-scoring single in the fifth after a walk to Stevens, a Toby Stevens double, and a Cooper Eidenier sac fly.

“Our 6-7-8 hitters were wonderful today,” Hardman said in reference to Eidenier, Gnepper, and Jay Breed, who had two singles and also scored a run. “We were better than they were at the bottom.”

It was more than enough for Stevens, who surrendered eight hits but came up with big pitch after big pitch against an Archbold squad that had runners in scoring position in five innings.

“I just had to stay calm when guys are on and do what I’m able to do,” said the senior left-hander, who set down 13 on strikeouts while not walking a batter. “I know what I saw early in the game and knew what I was able to do. Pitching ahead and not walking batters is what I liked today.”

Archbold head coach Jeff Brunswick came away impressed.

“He made some really nice pitches,” the first-year mentor of the Blue Streaks said of Stevens, the starting pitcher for Ottawa Hills in last year’s state semifinals. “You can tell he’s pitched in big games before. He’s a tremendous pitcher, and that’s a tremendous program. He made pitches when he had to, and that’s a credit to him and his staff.”

A Jack Hurst single and Stephen Diller triple in the third inning produced the lone run by Archbold, which closed out the season at 14-9.

“This team plays with heart,” Brunswick said. “We play as a family. We have 10 seniors that have graduated that gave it everything they have. They won a league title and play the game the right way.”

Drew Tajblik, who went the distance to pick up the victory in the second game of the day, set two school records while coming up with perhaps the biggest hit of the game, a two-run triple to cap a four-run fifth to lead Lake to victory. The big hit came after Otsego had taken the lead in the top of the frame on a single by Bodde Simon and an RBI double from Jaxon Jeremy.

“He threw me a 2-2 curve and I squared it up good,” the Lake senior explained. “That got the team up, the energy going and the momentum changed.”

With one away, Caleb Tobias singled and, after a Connor Eck sacrifice bunt, Korbin Adkins walked bringing up the top of the order. Gavin Kohhofer then plated Tobias with a single before the Tajblik three-bagger.

“We really push guys to just grind at-bats,” Lake coach Casey Witt said about the bottom of the order coming up big in the fifth. “We have confidence in all nine of our guys. It doesn’t always have to be a certain guy to kick-start things and today was a great example of that.”

Tajblik, who had a first-inning double, added a run-scoring single in a six-run sixth that put Lake in front 10-2. Ryan Wagner had a leadoff single and Jay Blazevich produced an RBI hit in the inning while Tobias and Adkins also brought in runs in helping send Lake to the district finals for the first time since 2019.

“They’re a scrappy team,” Otsego coach Chase Welker said of the Flyers, which improved to 24-4. “We knew a one-run lead wasn’t going to be safe, or enough. They’re a tough team to beat. They’re well coached, they’ve got a lot of talent and you’ve got to take your hat off to them.”

Still, the Knights never quit, scoring four in the seventh against Tajblik, who set a school mark for wins in a season with 10 to go along with establishing a new school record for stolen bases with his 32nd of the season.

“That’s a very good hitting team,” Tajblik said of Otsego, which lost despite outhitting Lake 13-10. “They’ve been doing that all year. They saw the curve ball well and they saw the fastball well. You’ve just got to prepare mentally how you react to that and stay mentally strong.”

Welker was pleased his team did not give up, even down eight.

“Our guys tried to make a little run at the end,” noted Welker, whose Knights pounded out four hits in the seventh. “We told them as coaches we’re proud of them for all the effort and hard work they put in this year. We faced a lot of adversity through injuries and everything, but they were able to stick together and play good ball down the stretch.”