District baseball: Eight-run sixth leads Lakewood over Wadsworth

MENTOR — The Wadsworth baseball team was five outs from slamming the door on Lakewood's sensational season.Then the undefeated Rangers broke down the door and turned it into splinters en route to an 8-3 victory in the Division II, Northeast 2 District final Friday.The Grizzlies led 3-0 when Wadsworth starter Lucas Cowan forced Drew Jones to fly out to right fielder Blake Hoover to lead off the home half of the sixth inning. Then Lakewood (27-0), the D-II state coaches poll champion, saw eight of the next nine batters reach base safely against Cowan and reliever Jamison Marshall on seven hits and two errors in an eight-run inning."It sucks to lose, but it was fun the whole game," said Wadsworth senior Brett Pelkey, who had a single, double and run. "We battled. We were up until the bottom of the sixth, and they just found something."The Grizzlies did battle until the end, loading the bases in the seventh when Bryson Bupp was hit, Pelkey walked and Hoover singled to center. That placed the tying run in the on-deck circle with one out, but Rangers reliever Riley Verderber shut down the rally by striking out Jason Copeland and Ryan Stoops to end the game.Copeland and Stoops previously hit back-to-back doubles in the third to give Wadsworth the 3-0 lead.The 6-foot-6 Verderber was fantastic, throwing four shutout innings on one hit, one walk and one hit batter. Until the seventh, the only baserunners the Cleveland West Conference Pitcher of the Year allowed came on back-to-back errors with two outs in the fifth.Verderber, whose fastball has been clocked at 91 mph, also singled to left to start the rally in the sixth. His effort got the Rangers into a Region 5 semifinal against Shaker Heights (18-11) at Gilmour Academy on Wednesday."That was probably the most energy we had all season," said Wadsworth's Michael Cindia, who hit a double that scored Pelkey and Stoops for a 2-0 lead in the first. "It definitely showed in the first inning with two runs. That was big time. It got us going. We tried to keep that going all the way through, and we fell short."Cowan was stellar through five innings, allowing only three hits and limiting the Rangers to 0-for-8 with runners on base.Following Verderber's single, Nick Hart reached on an error and Finn Schroeder singled home Verderber. Schroeder was the only player Cowan did not retire, going 3-for-3 with three singles. The left-hander allowed three runs (1 earned) on five hits, one walk and five strikeouts.After Schroeder's hit, the Grizzlies turned to ace Marshall, who entered with a 7-1 record and 1.73 ERA. He threw three shutout innings against Warren Harding in the district semifinals and remained under the pitch-count threshold to keep him available for Lakewood.It looked like it would be more of the same when Marshall forced Luke Legato to fly out to Reid Close in left. Unfortunately, three straight singles followed before Cooper Russell doubled and Bowling Green recruit Jones capped the rally with a three-run homer to left.Marshall allowed five runs (1 earned) on five hits."They just kept finding holes," Cindia said. "The one home run was well hit, squared up, but other than that they kept finding holes. We had to make plays, and we couldn't make them."Wadsworth struck a chord early when Pelkey led off the game with a ground-rule double to right. The doubles were a theme, as four of Wadsworth's six hits were of the two-bag variety.Stoops walked two batters later and Cindia followed with another double to right to score both runners."We knew they were very good, so we had to come out really strong," Pelkey said. "We did that."Following Stoops double in the third, the Grizzlies didn't get another hit until Hoover's knock in the seventh, 15 batters later.Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.Lakewood 8, Wadsworth 3Division II, Northeast 2 District FinalWADSWORTH 201 000 0 — 3 6 2LAKEWOOD 000 008 x — 8 10 2WP — Riley Verderber 4 innings, 0 runs, hit, walk, hit by pitch, 7 strikeouts. LP —Jamison Marshall (7-2) 2/3 inning, 5 runs, 1 earned, 5 hits. Wadsworth (15-9) — Brett Pelkey single, double, run; Jason Copeland double, run; Ryan Stoops double, run, RBI; Michael Cindia double, 2 RBIs. Lakewood (27-0) — Cooper Russell double, run, RBI; Drew Jones single, home run, walk, run, 3 RBIs; Finn Schroeder 3 singles, run, RBI.