GALION — After Plymouth battled back and tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the fifth, Colonel Crawford needed to respond.
The Eagles responded in a big way.
Colonel Crawford (21-7) scored three runs in the bottom of the frame and came away with a 6-3 win over the Big Red (12-11) in the Division IV district semifinal baseball tournament at Galion’s Heise Park.
With the win, the second-seeded Eagles will face top-seeded Mohawk (19-6) for a district crown on Friday at 5 p.m. in Galion.
When Crawford needed a play, CC coach Dan Gorbett said that his team has done it all season long.
“Yesterday I told the kids that during tournament play there is going to be adversity,” Gorbett said. “That’s going to happen. They’re going to get a couple of hits, errors are going to be made, whatever.
“The key is how you respond to that. We repeated that in the huddle there. We came back.”
The Eagles opened the fifth when Cade Hamilton ripped a triple into the gap in right-center field. Trevin Fairchild reached on an infield single and Hamilton scored on Gavin Feichtner’s double to left-center.
A walk to Daylen Balliet, an intentional walk and a walk to Dylan Cooke plated the third run.
“For a team with no seniors, they have done a great job in clutch situations,” Gorbett said. “I think we’re 6-3 in one-run games and we’ve had four other ones that we won in the seventh inning.
“They have really done a great job responding to pressure.”
Plymouth coach Jake Strayer said that his team did a great job of battling back but that the Eagles made the big play.
“The ball just didn’t fall our way today,” Strayer said. “We put the ball in play, and we forced them to make play. But the ball just didn’t fall our way today. They got the hits when they needed them. They got timely hits and the ball just didn’t fall our way.”
The Eagles got a run in the first when Hamilton singled, stole second and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. Feichtner got the RBI with a ground ball and Crawford led, 1-0.
Crawford made the score 2-0 in the third when Hamilton singled, stole second and came around to score on a wild pitch.
Plymouth tied the game at 2-2 when Anthony Montgomery singled and moved up on a sacrifice. Luke Hamman singled and an Eagle error and a Camden Welch single plated the runs.
After the Eagles scored their three runs, Plymouth cut the lead to 5-3 in the sixth on a pair of Crawford errors.
Once again, the Eagles responded in the bottom of the inning. Fairchild walked and singles from Feichtner and Daylen Balliet singled, scoring a run.
“Anytime the lead gets shortened, it’s pretty scary so that was nice adding that run,” Gorbett said. “We’ve done a great job of doing that.”
Drayton Burkhart started on the hill for the Eagles and worked a complete game, permitting seven hits. He struck out 10 and walked one.
“He’s a real battler,” Gorbett said of Burkhart. “His off-speed stuff was not as good as it has been in the past. But because he’s such a competitor, he can get it done.”
Trevon Lane started on the mound for Plymouth, working 4 ⅔ innings, allowing five runs on five hits, striking out four and walking four, two intentionally.
Freshman Zeth Goth worked one inning, allowing a run on two hits, striking out two and walking one. Lukas Montgomery finished the game, striking out one.
“You think you have everything going your way, then one thing happens, and all the air goes out of the balloon,” Strayer said. “I thought we had things going and they got some timely hits.”
Box score
Colonel Crawford 6, Plymouth 3
Plymouth 000 021 0 3 7 2
Colonel Crawford 101 031 X 6 8 5
WP: Drayton Burkhart (10 SO, 1 W)
LP: Treven Lane (4 SO, 4 W)
HR: None.
Triples: (CC) Cade Hamilton.
Doubles: (P) Treven Lane, Camden Welch; (CC) Gavin Feichtner, Brock Ritzhaupt.
Multiple hits: (P) Luke Hamman, Camden Welch; (CC) Cade Hamilton 3, Gavin Feichtner.
Records: Plymouth 12-11; Colonel Crawford 21-7.
Next: Plymouth season over; Colonel Crawford vs. Mohawk, Division IV district final Friday, at Galion.