ONTARIO— In high school baseball, usually the team that makes the least amount of mistakes brings home the win. In the case of the Ontario Warriors, it was the timing of their lone mistake that hurt them the most.
A costly mistake caused the Ontario Warriors to drop their home opener to the Fredricktown Freddies on Saturday afternoon at Ontario High School. A passed ball in the top of the 8th inning scored a Freddie from third base on a bang-bang play at the plate. The play gave the Freddies the lead and the win.
Fredricktown was able to make Warrior ace Mason Goodwin throw 43 pitches in the first two innings, which would eventually chase him from the game with two runs allowed in the first.
Three early walks came back to haunt Goodwin. The Freddies converted two of them on a timely two out single. After the first inning, Kyle Pasheilich, Paul Homan, and Alex Vredenburgh, would combine efforts on the mound to hold the Freddies scoreless up to the fifth inning.
For the Warriors’ offense, third basemen Kyle Pasheilich opened the top of the second with a walk. He would then move over on a ground out to third by Tyler Gorbett. After a Aaron Baker strikeout, a two-out, clutch single by Tyler Weber put the Warriors on the board. But, it was the third inning that saw the Warriors break away.
Brad Dretzka led off with a single to right field. Head coach Dan Gorbett decided to play a little small ball and bunt Dretzka over. The move proved to be smart as Dretzka scored on a Paul Homan single to right field, bringing Dretzka in from second base. The Warriors followed with singles by Pasheilich and Gorbett. Plate discipline yielded the Warriors three walks in the next four batters to walk in two more runs. Ontario would end the third inning with a 4-2 lead.
The Freddies clawed their way back in the fifth and sixth with a run in each inning to tie the ball game at four. Each team went scoreless in the seventh inning to force the game into extra innings.
The Warriors played clean baseball until the eighth and final inning. With runners on second and third and one out, Vredenburgh bounced a curve ball in the dirt. The ball took an odd bounce off of Dretzka’s chest and came to a halt about four feet away. The Fredericktown runner never hesitated and slid in just under Vredenburgh’s tag to put the Freddies took the lead 5-4.
The Warriors had one last chance to score in the bottom of the frame with bases loaded and two outs, but Gorbett grounded into a fielder’s choice to give the Fredricktown Freddies a dramatic victory.
Goodwin led the offensive effort with a pair of hits and the game’s only double in the eighth inning. Dretzka was 1-3 with a single and two walks. Homan added a single and an RBI, and Pasheilich added a single with and RBI as well.
The Warriors will travel to Sandusky on Monday.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | R | H | E |
| Fredericktown | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 1 |
| Ontario | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 2 |
