Grand Lake grit

ST. MARYS - St. Marys' early offensive onslaught forced Celina to make a quick pitching change.

And once Parker Maurer stepped on the hill for the Bulldogs, he was a game-changer.

Maurer came on in relief to limit the first-inning damage and held the Roughriders in check over the next five, RBI hits by Bransen Miller and Kyle Stein sent the Bulldogs ahead in the sixth and Grant Wagner pitched a scoreless seventh to secure an 8-7 victory on Tuesday at K.C. Geiger Park in St. Marys.

"The biggest thing is Parker came out and threw great for us," Celina coach Andy Mikesell said. "He threw a ton of pitches - a lot more than we wanted him to. But he was dealing."

Both teams came out swinging in the Battle of Grand Lake. Celina plated four runs in the first. St. Marys countered with six in the bottom half. That was followed by three straight innings of zeros.

In Celina's first at-bat, Caden Highley led off with a single, Wagner drew a walk and Maurer reached on an error. Miller and Reid Harter plated a pair with base hits and Stein later had an RBI fielder's choice. Miller scored the fourth run on St. Marys' second error of the inning.

Henry Spencer, who started on the mound, led off the Roughriders' first at-bat with a double. That began a stretch of five straight hits off of Bulldog starter Miller. Braedon Trogdlon got a base hit and Trey Fisher connected for an RBI single. A single by Dylan Trogdlon loaded the bases for Riley Sweigart, who dropped a two-run hit into shallow right field. Maurer's pitching stint began by giving up a two-run single to Ethan Rose and another run-producing hit to Carson Fischbaugh.

Maurer, however, didn't allow much after.

He threw 113 pitches (65 for strikes) through the six innings, allowing four hits while striking out six and walking four.

"It would have been really easy to give up four in the first and put your head down, especially against your rival," St. Marys coach Adam Graves said. "My guys did a heckuva job battling back. They didn't change their approaches in that first inning. They did what we always preach to them and we put six up. The thing was, we tried to put in the guys' minds that six runs was probably not going to be enough."

Graves was right.

The Bulldogs ran themselves out of an inning with a base-running mistake and Rose also made a diving play at short and turned an inning-ending double play for the Roughriders. But Celina kept at it and finally drew closer in the fifth when Piper's sacrifice fly scored Miller.

An inning later, Highley and Wagner hit back-to-back singles. A double steal moved them into scoring position for Miller, who returned the lead to Celina with a two-run single. Stein added a key insurance run later with his RBI single.

St. Marys had the tying runners in scoring position with one out in the sixth after Fisher reached on a fielder's choice and Dylan Trogdlon drew a walk. Fisher scored on a groundout by Sweigart, but Maurer forced Clay Quellhorst into an inning-ending pop up.

The Roughriders had their lead runner aboard in the seventh as Wagner walked Blake Kanoor. But Wagner then fielded Rose's attempted sac bunt and picked off Kanorr before he could reach second. Maurer made a running catch in center and then Braedon Trogdlon grounded out to end the game.

Celina improved to 9-10 overall and 5-3 in WBL play.

"They came out and hit the crap out of the ball," Mikesell said. "Of their nine guys, I think six of them had hits in the first inning. I'm glad we didn't get down. We got a big high, then a big low. Then we just gutted it out and finished."

"They weren't hitting (Maurer) hard at all," Celina's coach added. "So we just stuck with him until we got to a certain point where we thought they were used to his velocity. Then we brought in Grant to change things up on them. He came in and does what he does. It was a shoe-box of a strike zone, but he got a couple in there. We made a couple nice plays behind him. Parker had a great catch in center. Grant had a nice play on that bunt. … I'm just glad to see us finish."

It was the fourth one-run loss of the season for St. Marys, which fell to 7-12 overall and 4-4 in WBL play.

"It was one of those where we scored six and you feel like if you could have put something up in the second or third inning, you've got your foot on their throat and maybe have a chance to put them away," Graves said. "But it didn't happen. We just got complacent and didn't score again until the sixth inning.

"They brought in the Maurer kid who threw from a couple different arm angles," St. Marys' coach added. "He threw side arm a little bit, and I don't know if that threw us off. His curveball was working. He did a good job of changing speeds. I think we just kind of lost momentum."

Harter had a three-hit day for Celina. Highley, Wagner and Miller added two hits each. Miller also had a three RBIs.

Braedon Trogdlon had three hits for St. Marys with Spencer adding two. Spencer pitched into the sixth, allowing seven hits while striking out two and walking three. Kanorr was dealt the loss.