In a battle of future collegiate pitchers, it was Lincolnview junior Landon Price that dominated Antwerp and led the Lancers to a 7-2 win in the Division IV regional semifinals at Patrick Henry High School.
Price, who has committed to Ohio State, needed only 92 pitches to toss the complete game for Lincolnview. The junior hurler struck out 13 Antwerp hitters while giving up four hits and two earned runs.
Meanwhile, Antwerp’s Luke Krouse battled through five innings but suffered the loss. Krouse, who will play at Bowling Green, tossed five frames surrendering seven hits, seven runs (four earned) and three walks while fanning nine.
Austin Lichty tossed the final two innings for Antwerp, allowing two hits and striking out three Lancer batters.
Price led off the game reaching second thanks to an Antwerp error before a bunt single by Collin Overholt moved the Lancer junior to third. Price then scored when Dane Ebel hit into a fielder’s choice to put Lincolnview on top 1-0 in the top of the first.
The blue and gold then broke the game open in the second, all with two outs.
A Clayton Leeth single to left started the rally before Creed Jessee walked. After a Price single to center field plated Leeth to make it 2-0, an Overholt base hit to left scored Jessee as Lincolnview extended the margin to 3-0.
Ebel then followed with a double to center field that brought Price and Overholt in to score as the Lancers pushed the advantage to 5-0.
The Van Wert County squad widened the lead in the fourth.
A two-out single by Price was followed by an RBI triple from Overholt that made it 6-0 Lancers. Overholt then scored on a passed ball as Lincolnview pushed the advantage to 7-0.
With the margin out of reach, Antwerp did break up the shutout and scored the first earned runs all season off Price.
Parker Moore opened the bottom of the seventh with a single and Austin Lichty doubled to move Moore to third. A Luke Krouse groundout plated Moore to get the Archers on the scoreboard and a Hunter Sproles single scored Lichty to get Antwerp within 7-2.
Carson Altimus popped out for the second out before Price struck out Hines for the game’s final out.
Overholt had a pair of singles and a triple for the Lancers while scoring twice and driving in two runs. Ebel added a double and three runs batted in with Price posting two singles and scoring three times. Carson Fox, Caden Hanf and Leeth had the other Lincolnview hits.
Austin Lichty had a double and scored one run for Antwerp with Parker Moore adding a single and scoring once. Hunter Sproles and Ethan Lichty each had a single for the Archers as well.
Seniors playing for the final time in an Archer uniform were Austin Lichty, Jordan Buerkle, Dylan Hines and Jason Geyer.
