No. 2 Lancers top No. 1 Cavaliers 6-0

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

COLDWATER – Lincolnview won Saturday’s battle of state ranked baseball teams, with the Lancers (No. 2, Division IV) blanking Coldwater No. 1, Division III) 6-0 at Veterans Field on Saturday.

The win boosted Lincolnview’s record to 20-2, and it snapped Coldwater’s 20 game winning streak.

Freshman Landon Price pitched six strong innings for the Lancers, allowing seven hits, while striking out seven and walking just one. Senior Ethan Kemler came on in the seventh and struck out a pair of Cavalier batters.

“I thought Landon had tremendous poise on the mound,” Lincolnview head coach Eric Fishpaw said. “He pitched out of jams and with runners on base.”

Collin Overholt scored Lincolnview’s first run on a Coldwater (20-4) error in the top of the first, then the Lancers stunned the hosts with three more in the top of the second.

Gavin Carter opened the inning with a double, then two batters later, Braxton Fox singled, moving Carter to third. Cole Binkley walked to load the bases, then after a fly ball out by Overholt, Jaden Youtsey walked, scoring Carter. A two-RBI single to left field by Creed Jessee plated Fox and Binkley and gave Lincolnview a 4-0 lead.

“The hit by Creed to score two runs was huge in the game,” Fishpaw explained. “It gave us some breathing room and gave Landon some more confidence pitching on the mound.”

Coldwater had two on in the bottom of the second but was unable to capitalize. The Cavaliers also had runners at first and third in the fifth and at first and second in the sixth, but Price was able to work out of both situations.

Youtsey put an exclamation point on the victory with a sixth inning inside the park home run that plated Overholt.

“It was a towering fly ball to left field that the wind kept pushing in,” Fishpaw said of the round tripper. “It landed a few feet fair and the left fielder was pretty far away from the ball. Jaden kept running hard and we were able to score him and Overholt, expanding our lead from four to six.”

“That’s important against good programs like Coldwater to stretch leads.”

Carter finished with two of Lincolnview’s five hits and Youtsey had a team high three RBIs. Austin Riethman and Jake Hemmelgarn each had two hits for Coldwater. Jacob Wenning pitched the first six innings for the Cavaliers, allowing four hits and four walks while striking out six. Ross Weigel pitched the remaining two innings and gave up a hit and two runs.

The Lancers are scheduled to play at Paulding today. Both teams are 7-0 in NWC play, and the winner will claim an outright conference championship.

Coldwater is scheduled to host Van Wert on Tuesday.

Line score

Lincolnview 130 002 0 – 6 5 1
Coldwater 000 000 0 – 0 7 2

Box score

Lincolnview (ab-r-h-rbi): Collin Overholt 3-2-0-0; Jaden Youtsey 2-1-1-3; Creed Jessee 3-0-1-2; Ethan Kemler 4-0-0-0; Brayden Evans 3-0-0-0; Gavin Carter 3-1-2-0; Landon Price 3-0-0-0; Braxton Fox 3-1-1-0; Cole Binkley 2-1-0-0

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-so-bb): Landon Price 6.0, 7-0-0-7-1; Ethan Kemler 1.0, 0-0-0-2-0

Coldwater (ab-r-h-rbi): Austin Riethman 3-0-2-0; Myles Blasingame 4-0-0-0; Jacob Wenning 4-0-0-0; Noah Miller 2-0-0-0; Jake Hemmelgarn 3-0-2-0; Cole Frilling 3-0-1-0; Will Broering 3-0-1-0; Ross Weigel 3-0-1-0; Zack McKibben 2-0-0-0; Alex Wourms 1-0-0-0

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-so-bb): Jacob Wenning 5.0, 4-4-3-6-4; Ross Weigel 2.0, 1-2-2-0-1