Blackmore, McCracken lead VW to win

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

TIFFIN — Lawson Blackmore and Jalen McCracken were too much for Lexington on Thursday.

Blackmore allowed just three hits, including one through six innings, walked none, struck out a dozen Minutemen batters and clubbed a solo home run, while McCracken had two of Van Wert’s four hits, three RBIs, and scored a run for the Cougars in a 6-1 Division II district semifinal win at Tiffin University.

“By far this is Lawson’s best outing on the mound this year,” Van Wert head coach Charlie Witten said. “With the kind of stuff he has, he showed what he could do with it tonight.”

The Cougars took advantage of three Lexington errors, including one that allowed a pair of runs to score in the bottom of the third. Keaton Brown doubled then scored on a single by McCracken. Two batters later, McCracken stole second, then raced to third on an error that also allowed Jake Lautzenheiser to reach first. A second error on a fly ball by Hayden Maples plated McCracken and Lautzenheiser and gave Van Wert a 3-0 lead.

“Four of our six runs were scored out of those positions (7-8-9 hitters), so those guys did a real good job tonight, Jalen especially,” Witten said. “Getting those extra two runs in the third inning was huge in a sense that it made the mountain a little higher for Lexington to climb.”

Lexington (16-8) scored on a sacrifice fly in the fourth, but McCracken answered with an RBI double that drove in TJ Reynolds and Brown.

Blackmore finished the scoring in the bottom of the sixth when he drilled a home run to left field. The Cougars loaded the bases later in the inning, but Austin Basham, who came in to replace starting pitcher Ben Vore, was able to work out of the jam.

The Minutemen had a pair of runners on in the seventh, but the game ended on a double play.

The victory means Van Wert (24-2) will face Shawnee in an all-WBL district championship game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Tiffin, with the winner advancing to next week’s regionals at Bowling Green State University. Shawnee rallied to defeat Clear Fork 3-2 in nine innings.

Van Wert defeated Shawnee 6-1 on April 18.

Line score

Lexington 000 100 0 – 1 3 3
Van Wert 000 301 x – 6 4 0

Box score

Lexington (ab-r-h-rbi): Austin Basham 3-1-1-0; Josh Aiello 3-0-0-0; Ben Vore 2-0-1-1; Dylan Christman 3-0-1-0; Kevan Grimm 3-0-0-0; Jacob Deppenschmidt 2-0-0-0; Jack Kleinknecht 2-0-0-0; Chase Carter 2-0-0-0; Sam Maurer 1-0-0-0; Mitchell Sheets 1-0-0-0

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-so-bb): Ben Vore 5.0, 4-6-2-4-1; Austin Bashman 1.0, 0-0-0-1-2

Van Wert (ab-r-h-rbi): Jaxson Amweg 4-0-0-0; Jake Lautzenheiser 4-1-0-0; Hayden Maples 3-0-0-0; Nathan Temple 3-0-0-0; Lawson Blackmore 3-1-1-1; Owen Treece 0-0-0-0; Parker Conrad 2-0-0-0; TJ Reynolds 2-1-0-0; Keaton Brown 1-2-1-0; Jalen McCracken 2-1-2-3

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-so-bb): Lawson Blackmore 7.0, 3-1-1-12-0