SHELBY — Colonel Crawford had opportunities to win a district championship. It was Edison, instead, who cashed in.
Crawford stranded 13 runners in the game, including six in the final two innings, in a 6-5 loss to Edison in the final of the Division III district tournament at Shelby High School Saturday.
With the win, Edison improved to 17-11 on the season and will advance to the Elida regional tournament. The Chargers will face Archbold on Thursday at 2 p.m. Archbold, which was the fourth seed in the Defiance district, downed eighth-seeded Otsego, 6-1, to reach the regional.
Crawford, which was the top seed in the Shelby district, finished its season 25-3.
Certainly, the Eagles had their chances. Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth, they tied the game at 4-4 on a Cyler Hoepf RBI single.
But the biggest chance occurred an inning later. Crawford loaded the bases with no outs, needing just a run to win the game.
But they didn’t score. A botched safety squeeze caused one out at the plate, then back-to-back strikeouts ended the threat.
After Edison scored twice in the top of the eighth inning, Crawford scored a run in the bottom of the eighth on a bases-loaded walk to Cade Hamilton to cut the lead to one, but a ground out ended the game.
Colonel Crawford coach Dan Gorbett said that Edison made the plays when it needed to, and his team didn’t.
“It just seemed like we just couldn’t get that big hit, or ground out or sac fly, or get those couple of hits that just fell in,” Gorbett said.
“They seemed to get the bat on the ball and get the runs in and we couldn’t do that,” he added. “We had opportunities and our defense was horrible today. In tournament time you have to play good defense. And they were bad errors. They were routine plays that we were making errors on and, if you want to win a championship, you can’t do that. That’s the bottom line.”
Edison manager Sean Hoover felt that his team battled the entire game.
“We got out of a couple of jams, I’m not quite sure how we got out of those jams when they had the bases loaded with no outs and we got out of it, that was big and we got the momentum the next inning,” Hoover said.
“We got down early, 3-0,” Hoover added. “We came in and we fought hard. I don’t know if there was the action in that inning that made them refocus or what, but we just kinda chipped away and we made a lot of good at-bats. That’s what you want your team to do. This is a game between two really good teams and things are going to go back and forth.”
The Eagles did take a 3-0 lead in the third with four straight hits. Micah Thomas doubled, before Nolan McKibben, Hamilton, and Carson Feichtner each singled.
But Edison came back against Crawford starter Cade Hamilton, scoring a run in the fourth, two more in the fifth, and one in the sixth to take a 4-3 lead.
“That’s a good program and they battled,” Gorbett said of Edison. “We had the bases loaded and no outs and we don’t score. They have the same thing and get a couple of runs. They made it happen and we didn’t.”
Cade Hamilton worked seven innings for the Eagles, permitting 12 hits while striking out eight and walking none. Brennan Hamilton worked the rest of the way, allowing two hits and walking one.
“When you look back, we did have a good season but when you lose a game like this, it would almost have been better if there was a walk-off grand slam,” Gorbett said. “They just seemed to have chipped away.
“We had opportunities we just couldn’t cash in on them.”
Edison freshman Blake Simon worked 5 ⅓ innings for the Chargers, giving six hits, while striking out five and walking two. Junior Joey Pennell finished up, allowing four hits.
“He did a great job,” Gorbett said of Simon. “I was very impressed with him. He had that change-up and fastball and spotted the ball. My hat’s off to him, he did a heck of a job in a pressure situation.
“The other kid came in and, at first, he struggled a little bit, but when he needed to make the big pitch, he made it.”
“Blake did a great job out there and Joey came in and did an awesome job in closing the game out, maybe not as quick as he did the other day, he was a little more nervous this time, but we have young guys that we have to depend on,” Hoover said.
“I’ve been in enough of these (to know) that strange things happen sometimes, and you don’t want to get too high or too low in those things,” Hoover added. “We did a great job of coming out and getting things done.”
Box score
Edison 000 121 02 6 14 1
Colonel Crawford 003 001 01 5 10 4
WP: Joey Pennell (2 SO, 4 W)
LP: Cade Hamilton (8 SO, 1 W)
HR: None.
Triples: None.
Doubles: (CC) Micah Thomas.
Multiple hits: (E) Thomas Simon 3, Blake Simon 3, Clint Finnen, Xander Danner, Luke Bissell; (CC) Cade Hamilton 3, Nolan McKibben.
Records: Edison 17-11; Colonel Crawford 25-3.
Next: Edison vs. Archbold at Elida regional semifinal, Thursday.