Firelands Defeats Padua 5-3 to Win District Title

The Firelands Falcons defeated the Padua Bruins 5-3 to win the Parma district championship.

It was a pitchers duel early.

The first time through the order for each team only one total hit was given up.

Firelands struck first in the bottom half of the fourth.

A walk from Colin Ranson followed by a single from Alex Brill put runners on the corners for Calvin Stull.

Stull lined it to first base where it was caught by Bruins’ First Basemen Hayden Speeth.

Speeth came home to score and Brill got to third and scored on a single from Grant Price to give the Falcons a 2-0 lead going into the fifth inning.

Padua went down in order in the fifth but Firelands had another impressive inning.

Jacob Mullins started off the inning with a base hit followed by a base hit from Riley Bayus.

Austin Urban brought home Mullins with an RBI single that sent Bayus to third.

Padua Pitcher Hank Neumann balked to bring in Bayus and send Urban to third.

Ranson bunted and brought home Urban in what looked like a safety squeeze.

Hank Neumann took the loss going 5.1 innings for the Bruins giving up 3 earned runs on 8 hits.

The Bruins weren’t done though, in the seventh inning a comeback was sparked.

Back-to-back singles from Ryan Whitely and Austin Phillips got the rally started.

Justin Eles brought in both runners with a single to cut the score to 5-2.

Eles moved to second because of a wild pitch, then to third because of a sacrifice fly.

Eles then scored on a bang-bang play at the plate on a wild pitch.

Coach Ransom kept his faith in Evan Lacey and it paid off as the Falcons got out of the jam and escaped with a 5-3 victory.

” Last year we came out here and he didn’t get out of the first inning,” Coach Ransom said. “He had some redemption in mind. He had it in the back of his mind. At the end of the game, he was a little tired. The only thing he said he could throw for a strike was his curveball so we kept calling it.”

Lacey went all 7 innings giving up 3 earned runs on 6 hits, he struck out 8.

Firelands will advance to the Regional semifinal and will play at Bowling Green a week from Thursday.