It didn’t look good for the Paulding Panthers Friday night at Evergreen as the maroon and white trailed 5-2 entering the seventh inning of the Division III sectional championship baseball game.
But Paulding had the Vikings right where they wanted them. The maroon and white scored three times to tie the game at 5-5 in the seventh and then added three more in the eighth for an 8-5 victory over Evergreen to clinch a berth in the district tournament this week.
In the seventh, Deyton Price and Hunter Kauser drew back-to-back walks to start the inning before an Ethan Foltz single scored Price. Blake McGarvey singled to load the bases and Payton Beckman followed with a single to plate Kauser, getting the Panthers within 5-4. Sam Woods followed with a single to score Foltz and tie the contest at 5-5.
With one out in the eighth, Kauser and Foltz earned consecutive walks before McGarvey hit into a fielder’s choice for the second out. However, the throw to first was unable to be handled by Evergreen which allowed Kauser to score for a 6-5 Paulding lead.
Woods followed with a single that eluded the Viking left fielder as McGarvey and Beckman came around to score to expand the Paulding lead to 8-5 entering the home half of the inning.
McGarvey then shut the door on Evergreen, posting a pair of strikeouts in the bottom of the inning before getting a ground out to clinch the Panthers’ berth in the district tournament.
Woods, Beckman and McGarvey all had two hits for the maroon and white while Foltz and Andrew Adams added one hit each. Kauser scored twice for Paulding with Foltz, McGarvey, Beckman, Adams, Logan Tope and Price scoring once each. Foltz, Beckman and Woods each had a run batted in for the Panthers.
McGarvey picked up the win in relief for Paulding, throwing the final three frames striking out three and walking one. Woods tossed the first five innings, allowing three hits, five runs (one earned) and five walks with seven strikeouts.
Paulding advances to take on Otsego at Defiance High School on Thursday at 6:00 p.m. Fairview will tangle with Archbold in the early game of the day.
