Wapakoneta edges Bath, 3-2
May 15—WAPAKONETA — It's been a good year for pitching in the Western Buckeye League. Some people might even call it the year of the pitcher.
So it was no surprise the guys on the mound played a prominent role for both teams when Wapakoneta's 3-2 win over Bath on Monday made the Redskins the WBL baseball champion for the first time since 2018.
Wapakoneta's three pitchers — Landon Brandt, Grant Jolly and Taylor Echols — combined for 12 strikeouts and limited Bath to three hits.
Bath's Blaine Albright and Skyler Lhamon combined for 10 strikeouts and allowed five hits.
Wapakoneta (16-5 overall, 8-1 WBL) would have had to share the WBL title with Bath if the Wildcats — who were looking for their first WBL championship since 1990 — had won. A Bath win also would have opened a door for Defiance to get a share of the league title if it won its final league game against Celina on Wednesday.
"That was a great WBL baseball game between two really, really good teams. There were five pitchers in that game today who were lights out. All five guys were in the upper 80s and into the 90s (miles per hour)," Wapakoneta coach Jason Brandt said.
"I couldn't be more proud of these guys. We lost early in the season to St. Marys and that could have diminished all our hopes but we went right at them. We knew we just had to play our game. We knew if we won out we had a chance to win the title," he said.
Wapakoneta took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning without getting a hit. Echols led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch. Jolly reached base on an error and Austin West was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Ryan Price's sacrifice fly brought in the first run of the game and the throw to the infield was off target, which allowed a second run to score.
Bath, which had loaded the bases with one out in the top of the third but did not score, tied the game in the top of the fifth inning when Preston Young singled, Quinton Collins singled and Albright scored both of them with an opposite field single to leftfield.
Wapakoneta's winning rally in the bottom of the sixth was started by a player who wasn't expected to get much, if any playing time, on Monday.
Freshman Drew Bailey, who entered the game to play third base when Jolly moved from there to pitcher in the fourth inning, started the home half of the sixth with a single. A sacrifice bunt by Ryan Camper advanced him to second base.
Zac Niekamp's infield single put runners at first base and third base and Echols' ground out scored Bailey.
"We had a freshman who hasn't played a lot, Drew Bailey, leading off the sixth inning who smokes one up the middle to get it started. Our normal third baseman went home with the flu this morning. He (Bailey) hasn't played a lot of third base but he did his job and made plays," Brandt said.
Bath coach Joe Gomez said it was a game with "a small margin for error."
"The WBL has great pitching, some of the best pitching in the state, I believe. Wapak has three horses that they threw. When you have five pitchers who throw in the upper 80s to low 90s you know you've got some good pitchers and there is a small margin for error," he said.
Bath is 10-10 overall and 6-3 in the WBL.
