Lake tops Ottawa Hills for 1st baseball district title in 10 years

DEFIANCE — A year ago, Ryan Wagner missed the baseball season after breaking one of his collarbones in the second game of the year.

On Saturday, the Lake senior pitched the Flyers to their first district championship in a decade.

“This means everything,” said Wagner after Lake rallied past Ottawa Hills 8-4 in the Division III district finals. “Not being able to play last year and then to win the league and a district championship is amazing.”

A trip to the regionals at 2 p.m. Thursday at Patrick Henry, where the Flyers will face Bucyrus Wynford, did not look promising after Ottawa Hills took a 4-0 lead after one inning.

“It’s never easy to see a team get four runs off you in the first inning knowing you have a big game ahead of you,” Wagner said. “But, I knew our bats were good enough that we’d be able to score runs.”

Still, it was not the beginning Lake coach Casey Witt was looking for out of his squad.

“I’ve got really good assistant coaches that keep me calm in situations like that,” said the third-year Lake mentor after seeing the Green Bears score four runs thanks, in part, to a leadoff triple by Reddik Pillarelli that was lost in the sun.

Toby Stevens, Luke Gnepper, and Jay Breed had run-scoring hits in the inning, but that was all the runs Ottawa Hills would get.

“I think that’s a microcosm of our entire year, how this team just fights and fights and fights and grinds away and never gives in,” Witt said.

Lake scored two runs in the second inning, with a Jack Sobzack leadoff single and an Aiden Young double sparking the rally. The Flyers scored a run in the third, with Wagner and Sobzack hitting singles to open the inning.

Ottawa Hills appeared ready to add to its one-run lead in the bottom of the third when three infield singles loaded the bases with one out. However, Wagner got a strikeout before a force out kept the Flyers down only 4-3.

“Just getting the next guy out was our only priority,” Wagner said. “I knew with our bats going, even if they scored that we’d have been able to come back and score.”

Wagner pitched 5⅔ innings, surrendering nine hits and one walk while striking out six to get the victory.

“We gave the ball to Ryan Wagner, and he pitched like a senior today,” Witt said. “He battled his butt off and we got everything out of him. He deserves all the credit for that.”

While Wagner was shutting down the two-time defending district champions, the ability to chip away continued to pay off for the Flyers, which went in front for the first time in the game with a three-run fourth inning that featured just one hit, a Jay Blazevich single.

Two walks and an error contributed to the uprising, and Lake scored two more runs in the sixth, highlighted by a Gavin Kohlhofer double and singles from Wagner and Sobzack.

“We’ve got guys that believe in each other,” Witt said after the Flyers improved to 25-4 on the season. “We told them before the game to play for the name on the front of our jersey, play for the dudes in our dugout, and they did just that.”

Ottawa Hills, which advanced to the state semifinals a year ago, closes out the season at 18-10.

“Lake did what it takes to win,” Ottawa Hills coach Chris Hardman said. “They recovered from being down 4-0. I didn’t bunt when it was 4-3, and our guy ended up striking out. We didn’t hit with runners on base, and we didn’t catch [the ball].

“But, the biggest thing was we didn’t pitch it very well and their kid recovered. Give him credit. He recovered from a rocky start and he started throwing the curveball.”

There was more that Hardman pointed to as vital.

“Look at their hit-and-run, the little things they did,” Hardman said. “And we shuffled defensively, which moved some runners up and they scored some runs. They did what it takes to win. You’ve got to give them credit.”

Sobzack had three singles and Kohlhofer a pair of doubles for Lake, while Wagner and Blazevich, who pitched the final 1⅓ innings for the save, each had two hits.

Toby Stevens hit three singles, Luke Gnepper had a single and double, and Pillarelli and Snyder had triples for the Green Bears.

“This is special,” Witt said of the first district title since 2014. “I’m proud of our guys and I’m happy for our guys. I’m blessed to be able to share the dugout with these guys and these coaches.”