Sluggers earn first-ever win, 4-0

MUSKEGON, Mich. – Ty Hanley gave Flag City five strong innings, four relievers followed with shutout pitching as well and Findlay High grad Andrew Stechschulte scored one run and drove in another when the Sluggers beat Muskegon 4-0 on Friday for the club's first win in franchise history. Following an 0-6 start as the new member of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, Flag City is 1-6. Muskegon, one of three teams aligned with Flag City in the Northern Division of the GLSDCL, is also 1-6. Hanley, a left-hander who plays college ball for Cal State Bakersfield, gave up just two hits over five innings and struck out four. Ryan Miezin relieved Hanley to start the sixth. He pitched out of a bases-loaded jam to keep Muskegon off the scoreboard, and Aidan Murphy, after walking a batter, retired six in a row. Ben Best, a Findlay High grad playing for Ohio Northern University, gave up a one-out single in the ninth, but got a pop up and a strikeout to earn the save. Stechschulte, who also attends ONU and is a two-time all-Ohio Athletic Conference catcher, singled and scored Flag City's first run in the second inning. Leading 2-0, the Sluggers tacked on two runs in the eighth. Base hits by Brett Reed and Carter Mottice started the rally. Stechschulte singled in one run and Tanner Powell doubled in another The Sluggers play Muskegon today at 6:35 p.m. in the second of a three-game series with the Clippers. PREP BASEBALL STATE TOURNAMENT DIVISION II CANTON – The Division II state baseball semifinals came down to seventh-inning and extra-inning heroics on Friday. In the second game at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium, pinch runner Kaden Rouser tagged up and beat the throw to the plate on Ben Nieckarz fly ball to right to give Anthony Wayne a 1-0 victory over Walsh Jesuit. Max Crandall greeted Walsh Jesuit reliever Josh Pierson with a double leading off the bottom of the seventh in a 0-0 game. Rouser came in as a pinch runner and took third on a bunt single before the key fly ball by Nieckarz. Anthony Wayne, champion of the Northern Lakes League this season, will face Amherst Steele today at 7 p.m. in the Division II final at Akron's Canal Park, Amherst Steele earned a dramatic win as well when an RBI double by Cole Charles in the top of the 10th inning gave the Comets a 3-2 win victory New Albany. Cole Marquez reached on a two-out error in the 10th. Cael Charles pitched four hitless innings of relief to get the win for Amherst Steele, which took the early lead on Landon Wolf's two-run, inside-the-park home run in the first inning. DIVISION III AKRON – Brandt Lichtenau lined a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning, moved to second when Adam West was hit by a pitch and scored the game-winning run on a base hit by Zane Hancock to give Newark Licking Valley a 2-1 win over Hamilton Badin in a Division III state baseball semifinal at Akron's Canal Park. Evan Lichtenau, an all-Ohio pitcher with a 10-0 record, allowed one run on six hits in 8-2/3 innings. Evan Roberts got the final out in the top of the ninth for the win. Licking Valley will play Hunting Valley University School in today's 1 p.m. D-III championship game at Canal Park. Aaron Moss allowed just three hits and struck out eight in a complete game effort and Jack Nelson and Bobby Berglund had RBI singles in a three-run sixth inning that powered University School to a 4-0 victory over Wapakoneta in Friday's other Division III semifinal. DIVISION IV CANTON — A.J. Trobenter's two-run single fueled a four-run sixth inning that carried Lake Catholic past Chillicothe Unioto 5-3 in the first of Friday's two Division IV state semifinals games at Thurman Munson Stadium. Patrick Radigan got the pitching win for Lake Catholic, allowing three runs on two hits and striking out 12. Lake Catholic will play Sandusky Perkins, in Sunday's state championship game at Canal Park. Perkins broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, then added two more in the sixth. The Pirates then had to hold on, though, when Indian Hills rallied for three runs in the top of the seventh. A wild pitch trimmed the deficit to 4-3, but Braxden Martin struck out the final batter to seal it. DIVISION V AKRON — Cam Miller delivered a key two-run fifth-inning single and 2022 and 2023 state champion Apple Creek Waynedale advanced to the finals for the third time in four years with a 2-1 win over Coldwater. Miller's key hit flipped the scoreboard and ace pitcher Shane Coblentz did the rest, allowing just one run on two hits and striking out eight. Results of the second Division V semifinal between Lynchburg Clay and St. Paris Graham were unavailable when The Courier went to press. THURSDAY'S GAMES DIVISION VII AKRON – Newark Catholic will be gunning for its tenth state championship and Minster will be chasing its fourth when the Green Wav and the Wildcats clash in today's 10 a.m. Division VII state final at Canal Park in Akron. Newark Catholic capitalized on Tiffin Calvert miscues to beat the Senecas 6-4 in Thursday's semifinal. Tiffin Calvert led 3-0, but an error and an RBI single by Malone Hutchinson helped Newark Catholic get two runs back in the third inning, and another error and an RBI single by Michael Hess triggered a three-run rally in the fifth. That put the Green Wave up 5-3, and Miller Hutchinson preserved that lead by pitching out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth. Logan Ritzler drove in two runs and Tucker Colman had an RBI single for Calvert. Minster also took advantage of Russia's four total errors to beat the Raiders 5-3 in the other D-VII semifinal. Louis Magoto had an RBI single for the Wildcats, and struck out 12 as the winning pitcher as well.