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Coldwater's Braylen Harlamert (4) slides into home as Liberty-Benton catcher Brady Birkemeier goes up for the ball.
ELIDA - When Liberty-Benton scored three runs in the top of the third inning, Coldwater didn't panic.
The Cavaliers regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth with two runs, added a run in the fifth and put the game on ice with a seven-run sixth to claim the Division III Elida district baseball title with a 12-3 win over the Eagles on Saturday afternoon at Ed Sandy Field. It's the first district title since 2019, when the Cavaliers captured their seventh state title.
Coldwater (25-5) head to Garold Parrott Field at Patrick Henry High School on Thursday for a 5 p.m. regional semifinal matchup with Marengo Highland. The Fighting Scots defeated Newark Catholic 6-5 on Thursday to win the Sunbury district title last Thursday.
"This has been a tough district for a long time," said Coldwater coach Cory Klenke. "It's nice to get out of here as the district champ and get to regional. We're going to make sure we enjoy this one."
The Cavaliers drew first blood in the second when Baylen Blockberger stole home as part of the double steal with Braxton Taylor. But in the third, the Eagles went ahead in a big way.
Ashton Crawford led off with a single. Seth Elchert followed with a deep fly to left, where Brady Lefeld appeared to have a bead on the ball but crashed hard into the fence. Eagles coach Matt Rader waved Crawford and Eichert around for the inside-the-park home run to make it 2-1.
Following a long pause, after which Lefeld stayed in the game, Treyin Lieb singled. After Zach Elchert grounded out and Connor Arnold bunted for a single, Conner Hiss singled home Lieb to make it 3-1.
Coldwater's Cale Wenning celebrates scoring against Liberty-Benton.
But that was it for Liberty-Benton, as Cavalier starter Cale Wenning allowed just one walk over the next 2 1/3 innings.
"These are seasoned players," said Klenke. "We've been in big games. We talk all the time (that) we're going to give up some runs. We don't have big strikeout pitchers, but we have great defense and hitters. We're going to compete 1-9 in the batting order."
The Cavaliers got a run back in the third, then in the fourth, an error allowed Kenny Bailey to reach. After a sacrifice bunt by Lefeld and a ground out by Depweg, Cole Etzler singled home Bailey to tie the game. AJ Harlamert walked and Braylen blooped a single to right to score Etzler to make it 4-3.
After another run in the fifth, the Cavaliers delivered the coup de grâce in the sixth, sending 12 men to the plate as reliever Seth Elchert walked six - one intentionally - and hit a batter while only giving up two hits in 2/3 of an inning. Bailey and Etzler each had two-run singles in the inning.
"It got out of hand with the walks," said Klenke, a nod to the 11 walks and two hit batsmen by L-B pitchers. "Guys were disciplined. It was good to capitalize."
In all, 11 of the 12 Cavalier runs came with two outs on the board.
"We talk about getting the last out of the inning and last out of the game," said Klenke. "That goes (both) offensively and defensively. We got some clutch hits with two outs."
Coldwater's Troy Wiegel stretches to catch a foul ball.
Troy Weigel, who came on in relief after Wenning threw 5 2/3 innings, wrapped up the game with a 6-4-3 double play to start the seventh before getting Zach Elchert to pop out to Mason Welsch at third.
Etzler finished with two hits and three RBI with Braylen Harlamert adding two hits.
