Gross, Royals hold on against Lakota

FINDLAY – Elmwood pitcher Zack Gross just kept working during Friday's Division VI district baseball final.He and the Royals had some difficult moments, but never folded during a 7-3 win over Lakota."They hit (Gross) hard at times, there's no doubt about it," said Elmwood coach Matt Malecha. "Lakota's a very good team, and they're a team that was hot, and we knew they'd give us everything (they) had."And in fact, the Raiders were relentless, right down to their final out.Gross had thrown a gritty six innings, working out of trouble and keeping the Raiders at bay after being staked to an early lead.Now, with a 7-3 advantage and nearing Elmwood's first district title since 2016, Gross started the seventh by retiring Lakota's Grant Bomer on a grounder to short.But Gross walked Grant Scherger and gave up a single to Jack Widman. Then, he hit pinch hitter Nate Stewart to load the bases.Approaching his pitch limit, Gross faced his final hitter: Brady Kern.Gross struck him out looking."I knew I needed to keep pounding the zone, keep doing my job," Gross said. "I knew my teammates behind me would make plays, and they did."Malecha came out to get Gross, who finished allowing eight hits and five walks. He struck out eight.He also left to a standing ovation from the Elmwood faithful."It felt amazing. It's really great to feel this community behind me," Gross said.Malecha handed the ball to a freshman, Abraham Keiffer."When (Keiffer) came in, I just said, 'You're ready for this,'" Malecha said.Keiffer struck out Hunter Sweeney looking to end it."Lakota – which faced a 4-0 deficit after one inning and climbed to within 5-3 in the fifth inning – left 11 men on base."We had the bases loaded two or three times and we just couldn't get that big hit that we needed," said Lakota coach Aaron Bomer. "Our boys battled the whole game, they fought back."Elmwood advances to play Maria Stein Marion Local at Patrick Henry's Garrold Parratt Field at 2 p.m. Wednesday."We're gonna enjoy it tonight, but as soon as we wake up tomorrow, it's time to focus on our next opponent," Malecha said.Elmwood certainly came out focused on Friday. Gross pitched a scoreless top of the first inning, then led off the bottom half with a triple. Ryken Zeigler followed with an RBI single to right. Zeigler was singled home by Aden Alva, and later in the inning, Nico Allen connected on a two-run double to make it 4-0.Kern started on the mound for the Raiders. He made it out of the first inning, but was replaced to start the second by Scherger.Scherger pitched well. He allowed a run in the second (Elmwood's Colton Bradford had an RBI single) but went the rest of the way for the Raiders, throwing five innings and allowing three runs, two earned. He didn't walk a batter and struck out two."He's been pitching really well the last three weeks, and did a great job of battling, getting outs when we needed to," Bomer said.And, he allowed the Raiders to get back into the game.In the fourth, Scherger and Widman singled, and with one out, Kern walked to load the bases. Hunter Sweeney drove in Lakota's first run with a fielder's choice, then Izreal Smith hit an RBI single to make it 5-2.In the fifth, Lakota got another run when Kern walked with the bases loaded.But Gross escaped further damage when Sweeney flied to right."It's always thinking about the 'what ifs' and the 'maybes,'" Gross said, "but I just knew I needed to focus on one pitch at a time, and I knew we were gonna make the plays, we were gonna find a way out of it."In the bottom of the fifth, Allen padded the Royals lead with a two-run single. Allen, a freshman, finished with four RBIs."I've been practicing hard, doing what I needed to do to get ready for big moments like this," Allen said."Today's the result of somebody who took coaching, and understood that his role was to get better as the year went on," Malecha said of Allen.Elmwood moved to 20-8.Lakota's season ended at 15-11.Bomer said his team learned a lot during the season, and also during its postseason run."We had six sophomores starting in the lineup, and we had five games where we lost by one run," Bomer said. "That experience definitely goes a long way."A good year to build on, for sure."