DELPHOS-It was a cold evening on Thursday for the NWC opener between rivals Jefferson and Spencerville at Jefferson high school. Karder Agner delivered a base hit in the bottom of the eighth to pick up a 3-2 for their first win of the season.
“We had both pitchers bring their A game today,” said Jefferson head coach Rick Suever. “Braylon started for us today and he had 14ks and Colin came in and picked up right where he left off and they showed leadership today.”
Neither team found success in the first inning but the Bearcats threatened in the second inning. A dropped third strike allowed Cooper Chapman to second with nobody out. Jefferson ace pitcher Braylon Scalf retired the next three hitters to avoid the damage.
Jefferson was able to threat in the home half of the inning. Karder Agner led off the inning with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch with nobody out. A bunt single by Cody Bailey had runners at the corners with one out. A strikeout to Logan Murray went past the backstop and allowed Agner to score to grab a 1-0 lead.
Spencerville responded in the top of the third inning as a pair of runners had runners on first and second with two outs. A dropped third strike to Carter Layman allowed Owen Conley to score to tie at a one run a piece.
Jefferson was able to get a runner to third in the bottom half of the inning and capitalized on another wild pitch strike out that allowed Casey Knippen to touch home plate to regain the advantage at 2-1.
Spencerville was able to threaten in the top of the fifth inning as a Jefferson error allowed Conley to reach base. Emerson Layman reached base on a hit by pitch. An infield single by Carter Layman loaded the bases with one out.
An RBI single by Cooper Chapman knotted the game at two and Layman was tagged out at the plate for the second out.
A Spencerville error allowed Knippen to reach base. Knippen was able to reach third but Scalf linedrive was caught by Ringwald to end the threat.
“Carter did good today,” said Spencerville head coach Norman Koenig. “Bottom line is we just aren’t hitting the ball right now and it’s why we aren’t winning right now.”
The Bearcats were able to get a runner into scoring position in the seventh but relief pitcher Bailey was able to strikeout Layman to end the half inning.
Jefferson started the bottom of the seventh with a walk from Logan Murray but was unable to reach the plate as the game goes into extra innings.
Spencerville was able to get something going in the eight inning but a throw from Luke Rode got Evan Osting out at third for the second out and a ground ball to second ended the inning.
Jefferson led off their half of the inning with a line drive single from Scalf and pickoff attempt went past first that advanced him to second. Agner delivered the walk off heroics with an RBI single to plate Scalf for the 3-2 victory.
“Karder is a special kid when he’s at the plate we have the most confidence in him and when Braylon made it to second I just had a weird feeling that something was going to happen and came through like he usually does.” Said Suever.
Jefferson improves to 1-4 and will travel to Bath on Saturday.
“Today we had some players step up that we have been trying to get to step up all year and the team played as a unit and we minimized our errors and we hit the ball well.” Concluded Suever.
Spencerville drops to 0-5 on the season and will visit Botkins on Saturday.
Spencerville 0 – 0 – 1 – 0 – 1 – 0 – 0 – 0 2 4 1
Jefferson 0 – 1 – 1- 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 1 3 5 0
Spencerville
Carter Ringwald 3-0-1-0 Emerson Layman 2-0-0-0 Nate Wood 1-0-0-0 Carter Layman 4-0-1-0 Cooper Chapman 3-0-1-1 Evan Osting 3-0-0-0 Tysen Patterson 3-0-0-0 Gavin Schwartz 2-0-0-0 Owen Conley 1-1-0-0 Jace Mawhorr 1-0-0-0 Aiden Graham 3-1-1-0
Jefferson
Vinny Murray 4-0-0-0 Braylon Scalf 3-1-2-0 Xach Houx 4-0-0-0 Karder Agner 4-1-2-1 Trace Casemier 2-0-0-0 Cody Bailey 2-0-1-0 Logan Murray 2-0-0-0 Casey Knippen 2-1-0-0 Luke Rode 3-0-0-0
Spencerville pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so)
Carter Ringwald 7-3-2-0-5-11
Carder Layman 0.1-2-1-0-0-1
Jefferson pitching
Braylon Scalf 5-3-2-1-2-12
Cody Bailey 3-2-0-0-1-3
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