Patriots hang on in extras

Copyright 2018, The Commercial Review

All Rights Reserved

COLDWATER, Ohio — His offense gave him the lead in the top of the inning.

All Wyatt Geesaman had to do was shut the door on the Cavaliers.

Coldwater loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, and cut the deficit in half thanks to an error.

Despite tensions rising among his teammates both on the field and in the dugout, Geesaman shrugged off the fact the potential game-tying run was standing on third base.

Geesaman got Brad Giere to fly out to Mitchel Frasher in left field as the Jay County High School baseball team held on to beat the Coldwater Cavaliers 5-4 in nine innings Monday at Veteran’s Field at Coldwater Memorial Park.

“I’m just thinking throw strikes, get out of it and just trust your team,” said Geesaman, who got the win in relief of senior Gaven Hare. “Let them see what they can do with it. I trust my teammates behind me … I trust myself to throw strikes.”

One batter earlier, Jack Muhlenkamp hit a slow dribbler down the third base line that Jay County third baseman Max Moser had trouble fielding. The error allowed Payton Goodwin to cut the Patriot lead to 5-4, and put Austin Riethman on third as the potential game-tying run.

Giere, who was hitless in his three previous at bats, worked a 2-2 count on Geesaman before popping Geesaman’s fifth offering in foul territory deep behind first base that Payton Heniser wasn’t able to grab.

Giere then lofted the next pitch to Frasher in left to seal Jay County’s first win of the season.

“I just didn’t think,” Geesaman said. He threw the final 5 1/3 innings and allowed two runs — one earned — on two hits. He also struck out four and walked one. “I’ve been training a lot in the offseason for moments like this. I just trusted myself and did what I can do.”

Jay County coach Lea Selvey, whose team moves to 1-1 on the year while Coldwater dips to 5-1, thought Geesaman grew during his outing.

“I think we saw the coming-of-age of Wyatt Geesaman,” he said. Geesaman, a 6-foot, 5-inch junior right hander, did not pitch as a sophomore because of an injury. “He jumped in there, he didn’t panic. He didn’t get all upset. He kept his cool and took care of business and his guys behind him helped him out.”

Geesaman also had a solid performance at the plate, blasting a two-run double in the second inning — it gave the Patriots a 2-0 lead — and ripping a triple in the sixth.

A balk and a sacrifice fly allowed Coldwater to tie the score in the fourth inning, but Moser hit an RBI double to put the Patriots out front one inning later.

Moser’s double extended his hitting streak to 20 games.

But Coldwater responded again with an RBI single from Jacob Hartings in the sixth inning.

As the game went to extra innings, Jay County got the first two batters on base in the top of the eighth but nothing more, and Coldwater left the potential game-winning run at third in the home half of the frame.

In the top of the ninth, Cole Stigleman hit a one-out single and advanced on a wild pitch. Ryan Schlechty launched a 1-1 pitch to the gap in right center field for an RBI triple to give Jay County the lead. Moser drove him in on a sacrifice fly for the eventual game-winning run.

“We have a chance to be a pretty good offensive team when we all get to clicking and get to running,” said Selvey, whose team out-hit the Cavaliers 9-4. “Ryan got into that one. Lot of places that’s gone. He smoked that sucker.”

Ethan Myers and Stigleman also finished with two hits.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Schlechty said. “We hit well. We’ve been hitting well all year so far.”