Mohawk offense erupts against Arlington

GALION -- Arlington coach Aaron Cheney thought it might be coming.The Red Devils watched Mohawk score three total runs in its last two tournament games.Arlington took the field Saturday night against the Warriors, it watched Mohawk smack 15 base hits and hit through its order in the fourth inning in a 12-2, six-inning loss in a Division IV district final at Galion's Heise Park."Looking at their schedule and results for this year coming into the district tournament, they had the ability to score runs," Cheney said. "In their last two tournament games to only have three runs, I felt they were getting close to being due. I just hoped it wasn't tonight."The Red Devils finish the season at 16-7. At the time of the tournament draw, Arlington was at the bottom of six teams that hovered around 10 wins. The Red Devils upset higher-seeded Crestline and higher-seeded Plymouth to get to Saturday."I am really proud of them," Cheney said. "If you would have told me on April 7 when we lost our fourth game in a row that we were going to come back and be in the district final -- I am really proud of where we came from that spot. That was a pretty low spot."Xavier Oesch opened the second inning with a a run-scoring double to score Landen Snyder, who had doubled just two pitches before and added to the Warriors' already 1-0 lead. In the first inning, Tyler Hayman walked, Trey Combs singled, and Nathan Geary's double off of Red Devils starting pitcher Frankie Jones opened the scoring."We got on them early," Mohawk coach Eric Hoover said. "We hit the ball hard in the first inning and people were building off of each other. We had a lot of confidence. I think that was a big deal. Everybody was supportive of each other."Things went from bad to worse for Arlington in the fourth inning. Travis Geary singled and Snyder walked to open the frame. Oesch laid down a bunt in an attempt to advance the runners, but no out was recorded on the play, loading the bases.Hayman's sacrifice fly brought in a run and Combs followed with a single to again load the bases. Nathan Geary then roped a single to left field to score a pair of runs. A wild pitch advanced Combs to third and Geary to second before Blake Harper's single brought in both runners.Bryce Hannam singled and Troy Russell and Travis Geary followed with run-scoring singles to make it 9-0. That ended Jones' day, giving way to Rylar Essenger, who hit Snyder upon entering. Oesch bounced into a fielder's choice for the second out, but Hayman drew a bases-loaded walk to push the lead to 10-0."We did not make the pitches we needed to make to keep them off balance," Cheney said. "It is the district finals. Teams can hit fastballs. When that is all you have left, that is what happens."Snyder handled the rest of the business on the mound. After throwing just 53 pitches in Wednesday's district semifinal win over South Central, Hoover opted to bring Snyder back, but was only able to after rain postponed the game from Friday to Saturday."I played through a million scenarios in my mind, so of course there were some (reservations)," Hoover said of bringing Snyder back out. "As soon as we got rained out, it was a no-brainer. You go with the hot hand that got us here. We had plenty of guys ready to go if we needed them."Snyder continued to wheel and deal against Arlington. He walked Jones to open the game, but retired the next seven next batters before Jason Launder reached on an error in the third inning.The Red Devils were hitless when the fifth inning began, already facing the run-rule possibility. But, Austin Rausch opened with a single and Jared Griggs followed with one as well. The ball hit by Griggs was misplayed, allowing Rausch to come around and score and Griggs to reach second. Two batters later, Jones' single scored Griggs to cut the deficit to 10-2."Wednesday he located really well on the outside part of the plate," Cheney said of Snyder. "We worked on that the last two days. We just did not make the swings happen. We had five or six popouts where we are not getting on top of the ball."The Red Devils could not muster any more offense and Essinger's command issues allowed Mohawk to take advantage in the sixth inning. Essenger walked Russell, Travis Geary, and Snyder before Oesch's single to left scored two and finished the game early."(Jones) was our next guy up," Cheney said. "We hoped he would be able to mix his pitches. He has three, but he could not really locate either one of his off-speed pitches. Then, they are waiting on fastballs because they are ahead in the count."Snyder allowed just three hits while striking out two. In 22 innings across three tournament games, he has allowed just three runs - one earned - while leading the Warriors (19-11) to a district title."He was hitting locations," Cheney said. "We like to hit fastballs early. We didn't get a lot of inside fastballs. We took a lot of fastballs on the outside. The ones were getting farther and farther and we got weak contact like we did in the first four innings." Arlington 000 020 - 2 3 0Mohawk 110 802 - 12 15 2WP: Landen Snyder. LP: Frankie Jones. 2B: (M) N. Geary, Snyder, Oesch.RECORDS: Arlington 16-7; Mohawk 19-11.