SHELBY — James Fisher earned a measure of redemption Thursday afternoon.
Fisher belted a two-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth as Margaretta stopped Galion 7-5 in the opening game of a Division III district semifinal doubleheader at Shelby High School.
Fisher’s first homer of the season came two innings after the senior blew a save by giving up a pair of runs in the top of the seventh. The meltdown included a balk that forced in a run.
“I felt good for (Fisher),” Margaretta coach Gregg Hedden said. “He blows the save, balks, loses his composure … then he comes back and does that. I really felt good for him that he could recover from that.”
The dramatic homer capped a wild afternoon. The third-seeded Tigers (16-11) led 3-0 before the No. 9 Polar Bears rallied.
Baseball is a funny sport. Sometimes it’s not your day,” Galion coach Phil Jackson said. “Today was just Margaretta’s day and not our day.”
Early Offense: Galion scored a run in the first when Ryan Talbott singled and eventually scored on Will Donahue’s sacrifice fly. Donahue knocked in two more runs in the third.
Margaretta scored two runs in the third on Fisher’s two-run double and took the lead with two more in the fifth. The Polar Bears added an insurance run in the sixth.
“It was a heck of a high school baseball game,” Hedden said. “We probably made more mistakes but maybe at the end we made a couple more plays and at the district level that’s what it comes down to.”
Leaders: Ryan Utz paced the Tigers with three hits, including a double. Mac Spears and Garrett Kuns each had a pair of singles.
“We had some opportunities early in the game and we just didn’t capitalize,” Jackson said. “In tournament baseball you’ve got to do that.
The fight was there and the talent was there. Baseball is a funny game where it’s not always the most talented team (that wins), but the most talented team that day.”
