Stansbery shines, offense erupts as L-B trounces Edison in district semi

BLUFFTON -- Landen Stansbery was laboring. The Liberty-Benton senior pitcher needed 40 pitches to get through a long first inning. But, a tremendous play by Reid Irwin in left field prevented Edison from a bigger inning. The fourth-seeded Eagles got the offense going from there, thumping the second-seeded Chargers 12-2 in six innings in a Division V district semifinal Thursday at Bluffton University. "I really have a lot of confidence in my teammates," Stansbery said. "I knew coming into today that I wasn't going to get a lot of strikeouts. I had to trust my defense and throw the ball to contact. I knew we'd be fine." L-B, ranked No. 6 in the final state poll, improved to 21-5. The Eagles will take on top-seeded and No. 2-ranked Coldwater (25-2) at 2 p.m. Saturday for the district championship back at Bluffton. Coldwater topped the Eagles in a district final last year. Liberty-Benton hasn't won a district title in 30 years. "We've been preaching all year that we want a chance again," L-B coach Matt Rader said. "We've been so close the last few years. We're hungry. We'll be ready. We know what we're getting with Coldwater." The Chargers (23-4) jumped ahead in the first inning. Bryson Wittmer walked and scored on a RBI triple from Davin Wendt. He then scored a couple batters later when Gabe Dymond singled down the right-field line. Edison loaded the bases, but Tristian Wetherill's poke in deep left was tracked down by Irwin to end the frame. If it fell, L-B likely would have been down 5-0. Instead, the Eagles were able to respond quickly. The top half of the second inning for Liberty-Benton started with an error when two Edison fielders came together, but neither caught a towering flyball hit by Conner Hiss. After a popout, Ryan Mead reached on an error and a bunt single from Connor Barbara loaded the bases. Stansbery followed with a run-scoring single and a second run scored on a fielding error. Irwin added an RBI single while a run scored on a wild pitch. An RBI groundout from Trevin Lieb gave the Eagles a 5-2 lead. "At the end of the day, if you can't make basic defensive plays and you put extra runners on base, that's a recipe for disaster," Edison coach Sean Hoover said. "It was today." L-B added on with three runs in the fourth inning and three more in the fifth. In the fourth, Mead singled, Barbara reached on a bunt single and Stansbery was hit by a pitch. After a fielder's choice cut down a run at home, Lieb tallied a sacrifice fly. Seth Elchert then tattooed a two-run triple to the wall to push the advantage to 8-2. In the fifth, Stansbery and Lieb recorded RBI singles. L-B wrapped up the scoring in the sixth inning when Zach Elchert roped a solo home run to left. He was hitless in three previous at-bats entering the sixth. "That's Zach," Rader said. "He's just got so much untapped potential there in his power. He hits it hard. I got a bruise on the back of my thigh from him earlier this season. You live with the strikeouts every once in a while, but he's got something big in him every game." Meanwhile, Edison was stunted by Stansbery on the mound. After laboring through the first inning, Stansbery was nearly unhittable. He needed just 64 pitches the other five innings. "He plays with passion and he's been doing it the last three years," Rader said. "He dug in. It's hard after you throw 40 pitches in the first inning, but he had all kinds of gas left in the tank. We trust him. That's why we've thrown him every big game the last three years." Edison did have a chance in the fourth inning, down 8-2. Dymond, Owen Price and Wetherill each drew walks to open the inning. But Stansbery pitched to contact and got a pair of force outs at home before a strikeout ended the threat. "They made the plays and got the plays at home when they needed to," Hoover said. "Credit to them. We put some balls in play, but they made the defensive play. They seemed to make every play they needed to." The bottom third of Liberty-Benton's lineup raked. They tallied seven hits and seven runs while reaching safely in all 10 combined plate appearances. "We put Connor in the 8-hole and he hasn't hit much for us this year, but he got on base a ton," Rader said. "Landen did what he's done all year from the 9-spot and found holes. He's not going to hit the gap very well, but he scores runs." Abe Hermes (10-1) got the start on the mound for Edison over Division I Louisville commit Bryson Wittmer. He went five innings, allowing 11 runs on 12 hits. He struck out three. "Abe pounds the zone and he mixes his pitches well," Hoover said. "That's the direction we were going to go. He pitched his butt off out there. We needed to do a little supporting behind him and we didn't get that done today." Liberty-Benton finished with 13 hits in six innings. The Eagles went down in order once and eight of the nine hitters had at least one hit. "In the two days of practice this week, we hit and hit and hit and hit," Rader said. "We knew we were going to see velocity we haven't seen all year. I felt like the kids took it to heart and we were ready to go. We were aggressive early in the counts. Sometimes we've been passive this season, but we were looking fastball and hunting them." Liberty-Benton 050 331 — 12 13 1Edison 200 000 — 2 5 4 WP --Stansbery. LP --A. Hermes TOP HITTERS: 3B-- (L-B) S. Elchert; (E) Wendt. HR: (L-B) Z. Elchert