GALION, Ohio — Clear Fork coach Rusty Staab was scratching his head after Saturday’s 6-1 win over Galion at Heise Park.
The Colts pitched well, played solid defense and consistently hit the ball hard and yet were clinging to a 3-0 lead heading to the seventh.
“We always tell the kids if we score one run an inning, we should be in good shape,” Staab said. “But we just had so many innings where we were ready to break the door down and we didn’t.
“It wasn’t like we had bad outs. We hit some nice line drives that they made good plays on.”
The template for Clear Fork’s struggles was set in the first. Clear Fork already had scored one run and had a man at second with nobody out but failed to score again.
The Colts added single runs in the second and third innings but left the bases paths littered all afternoon. Clear Fork had the bases loaded in the fifth but failed to score when Galion’s Jermaine Burket came on in relief of starter Matt Hardy and induced an inning-ending flyout.
“We couldn’t come up with the big hit when we needed it,” Staab said.
Galion coach Phil Jackson knows the feeling. The Tigers had two on and nobody out in the home half of the sixth but couldn’t push a run across the plate.
“That’s been the story of our season,” Jackson said. “We’re in a lot of games and we just can’t get that timely hit that scores runners in scoring position.”
Clear Fork finally broke through with three runs in the top of the seventh to take a 6-0 lead. Galion scored its lone run in the home half of the seventh.
Solid Start: Nick Schoonyan picked up the win for the Colts. He didn’t allow a run in four innings of work.
“Nick has been dying to pitch,” Staab said. “He hasn’t pitched in a while because we need him at shortstop, but he did a fine job for not pitching in three weeks.”
Shane Klenk worked two innings and Lane Belcher pitched the seventh.
Leaders: Schoonyan, Lee Snyder and Ben Sprang each had two hits for the Colts. Thomas Staab scored three runs.
Tournament Time: The tournament draw is Sunday and both the Colts and Tigers are in the 10-team Madison Division II district field. The field includes Lexington, Shelby and Ontario.
“There’s not a district in the state that is as tough as the Northwest District, especially in Division II,” Jackson said. “There is not a team there that anyone can sleep on. If you take anyone lightly, you’ll get knocked out of the tournament.”
Staab expects Bellevue and Ontario to be among the top seeded teams.
“Bellevue and Ontario have the best records, but I don’t know that there is a dominating team,” Staab said. “It’s going to be wide open.”
