Flyers beat Rangers to move on

MARIA STEIN - Marion Local baseball coach Dustin Woods had talked about his team being ready to make a run when tournament arrived.   

Woods' Flyers took the first step on Saturday night with a 7-6 win over New Knoxville in the Division IV sectional semifinal.

The eighth-seeded Flyers advance to play the third-seeded and 2014 state semifinalist Crestview Knights, the team that eliminated them last season in the district semifinal, on Wednesday in Convoy.

"Crestview is a very good team. They're a well-coached team. We've just got to play a good game," Woods said.

Aaron Nietfeld pitched four strong innings, Marion scored runs in the first four innings and added a pivotal insurance run in the sixth, and freshman right-hander Nick Thwaits worked his way out of a jam in the bottom of the seventh with the tying run on third.

"We made it interesting at the end, but that's why we've got to execute early, and that's exactly what we did," Marion Local coach Dustin Woods said. "To get three, one, one, one, if you score almost every inning, you're going to win a ballgame."

Saturday's game, delayed by thunder for 50 minutes following the second out in the top of the first, was all Marion for the first five innings before the Rangers were finally able to generate some offense.

New Knoxville trailed 6-0 in the fifth when it loaded the bases with no outs on a walk and consecutive errors by the Flyer infield. That set up run-scoring walks to Logan Leffel and Ryan Allen and back-to-back RBI singles by Shane and Nick Topp to trim the deficit to 6-4.

The Rangers managed two hits against Aaron Nietfeld before he exited the game in the fifth. He struck out three and walked four on his way to improving to 4-5 on the season.

Thwaits, the more-than-probable starter in Wednesday's game, gave up the two RBI singles in the fifth and then shut down the Rangers in the sixth. The freshman, who struck out seven in three innings, also plated the key insurance run in the bottom half. After reaching on an error and stealing second, Thwaits scored on Cole Unrast's RBI single.

Thwaits, however, did have some trouble closing the game out in the seventh. He plunked Shane Topp with a pitch to open the inning and Topp followed by stealing second and third. He scored on a fielder's choice by Nick Topp that left all hands safe. Shane Topp, who led the Rangers with two hits, later scored on Nate Timmerman's one-out RBI single. Timmerman advanced to second on the play at the plate and moved to third on a wild pitch, but Thwaits got the last two outs with a strikeout and groundout.

"Aaron pitched great. We needed Aaron to pitch great. You couldn't ask for anything more out of Aaron," Woods said, "and then Thwaits to come in and close it down. It got interesting, but he closed it down."

The Flyers (8-14), who lost to the Rangers 5-0 earlier in the season, scored three runs in the first on a two-out two run single by Matt Kahlig and an RBI walk by Jared Bergman. But New Knoxville starter Adam Howe got out of a bases-loaded jam with a strikeout on Aaron Nietfeld.

Ryan Thobe walked and Ethan Nietfeld followed with a bunt single to lead the second. Hunter Wilker later provided Marion a 4-0 lead with a sacrifice fly. The Flyers juiced the bases in the third to set up a fielder's choice RBI by Ryan Thobe and added another in the fourth when Thwaits scored on a wild pitch.

Marion Local had three bunts go for hits and finished the night with six base knocks. Unrast went 2-for-2 with a run scored and Thwaits scored three runs.

"We capitalized. Early in the season we didn't," Woods said. "We talked about tourney and how we need to capitalize. You've got to love that game we played."