By Nicholas Huenefeld

Special to the Sentinel-Tribune

MAUMEE — With the chance to secure a share of the Northern Buckeye Conference championship, the Eastwood baseball team suffered a heartbreaking 7-5 loss on the road to Maumee Monday in the regular season finale for both teams.

The Eagles (21-4, 10-4), which had just seen the Panthers score four times in the sixth inning, pushed across two runs in the top of the seventh and loaded the bases with two outs, but a fly out to right ended the threat and the game.

“Maumee is a really good team,” Eastwood coach Kevin Leady said. “We knew coming in that we’d probably have to staff this thing and throw a few (guys). I don’t think we played it as clean as we were capable of, and I think it came back to bite us a little bit at the end.”

With the outcome, Lake (22-4, 11-3) clinched the regular season title outright. Eastwood, meanwhile, fell just short in an attempt for a third-consecutive NBC title and will now look ahead to Thursday’s district semifinal matchup against Coldwater.

“We knew before the year started, we’d like to play for a league championship, and we did that today,” Leady said. “I think we focus more on the journey than the outcome. The battles that we’ve been through throughout the course of the year will help us Thursday.”

The Panthers (17-9, 10-4) earned a tie for second place in the NBC standings with Eastwood after playing spoiler in the conference race. While the Eagles swept Lake, Maumee swept Eastwood and split a pair of contests with Lake.

“I told the guys before the game that even though we were mathematically eliminated, winning this baseball game in my estimation gives us sole second place because we would have won two head-to-head games against Eastwood,” Maumee coach Todd Ery said. “There was a little something there. It wasn’t just another baseball game.”

Maumee jumped out to a 3-0 lead through four innings as the Panthers scored once in the first off Andrew Badenhop and twice in the third off Drew Kachmarik.

Offensively, the Eagles ended the first and third innings with double plays while stranding a pair of runners in the second. Connor Norton’s two-out double in the fourth also proved fruitless.

That all changed in the fifth.

Kachmarik, who relieved Badenhop on the mound to start the third, had just retired Maumee in order on four pitches to end the fourth, spurring a bit of momentum for his team, and Colton Woodward’s two-out single a half-inning later then started a three-run rally.

Kadyn Donnell and Badenhop followed with singles to help produce the first run. A wild pitch scored another, and a double to left from Kachmarik knotted the score.

Maumee, which has now won six in a row, responded by seizing control of the game in the sixth, taking a 7-3 lead when CJ Lepper and Jackson Kain doubled and homered, respectively, in back-to-back at bats after the Panthers placed two on with one out.

“You can’t give Maumee too many chances,” Leady said. “They have quite a few guys who can really swing for power. They got a double and a home run real quick, and a four spot went on the board before a blink of an eye. I’m proud of our guys. We battled. It’s time to focus on the tournament.”

Two walks and a hit by pitch loaded the bases with nobody out for Eastwood in the seventh, and Xander Greulich’s infield single two batters later pulled Eastwood within three.

Donnell then scored on a wild pitch with two outs, but Maumee went to Jack Dauer on the mound, who forced the game-ending fly out.

“I think we settled in a little bit,” Leady said of his team’s offensive success over the final three innings. “We don’t want to wait that long. You want that approach right out of the gate in the first inning and to have our guys come in with that kind of attitude immediately.

“We could have just rolled over, but our guys kept battling. We tied it up and even in the last inning, it’s easy to say, we had a shot right there with one swing and a gap shot, we’re back ahead.”

Kachmarik and Greulich each went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Woodward and Donnell scored two runs apiece while Badenhop went 1-for-3 with a run, a walk and an RBI.

District semifinals are now on tap for both teams Thursday. Eastwood will play Coldwater at Elida, while Maumee will face Defiance in Archbold.