By Nicholas Huenefeld

Special to the Sentinel-Tribune

DEFIANCE — The Lake baseball program is headed back to regional play for the first time since 2014 as the Flyers pulled off a come-from-behind 8-4 victory over Ottawa Hills in a Division III district championship on Saturday at Defiance High School.

“It’s really special because of the tradition we have in our program,” Lake third-year coach Casey Witt said. “It’s special to be able to do it with some of my best friends on the coaching staff, and it’s really special for this group of 13 guys that really enjoy being around each other.”

Lake (25-4) advances to face Bucyrus Wynford at Garrold Parratt Field on the campus of Patrick Henry High School in a regional semifinal Thursday at 2 p.m.

The other semifinal will feature fifth-ranked Coldwater against 10th-ranked Marengo Highland. The winners of each game will meet on Friday at 5 p.m. for a trip to the state semifinals.

A trip to the regional tournament didn’t appear too likely for the Flyers after one inning on Saturday as a leadoff fly ball to left field was lost in the sun, leading to a triple and eventually a four-run inning for Ottawa Hills.

The way back for Lake started in the second inning as Jack Sobczak led off with an infield single that deflected off the pitcher’s glove. Following a ground-rule double from Aiden Young, a wild pitch and an RBI groundout from Caleb Tobias trimmed the deficit in half.

“After they got up four, it would have been easy to hang our heads going into the next inning, but after we got a few hits and knocks, I felt like we were loose and ready to go back out and compete and score more runs,” said Lake senior Ryan Wagner, who picked up the win on the mound.

Wagner’s fellow senior, Tobias, helped his team again in the third, producing a sacrifice fly to pull the Flyers within one.

In the home half of the third, Lake put together the first of two huge defensive stops in the game as Ottawa Hills loaded the bases with two outs on three infield singles.

Second baseman Jay Blazevich, however, ranged to his right and stopped a grounder up the middle and tossed it to Sobczak at second for the rally-killing third out.

The Flyers used that juice to push across three more runs in the fourth to take the lead for good.

A one-out RBI single from Drew Tajblik tied things up. Blazevich singled to put runners on the corners, and he then dashed to second on a steal attempt. The throw was errant, scoring Tajblik. Wagner was up next, sending a line drive single through the right side for a 6-4 lead.

A pair of run-scoring grounders in the sixth from Blazevich and Sobczak accounted for the final runs.

“We got a group of dudes who love to compete in our dugout,” Witt said. “This is about as evident of that as any game this year.”

Ottawa Hills attempted to mount a rally in the sixth, chasing Wagner from the mound with a two-out single. Blazevich took over and threw seven consecutive balls, but he found the strike zone on the eighth to set up the game’s second defensive gem.

On a 3-1 pitch, Jackson Snyder lofted a dangerous fly ball to short right field down the line that likely would have scored two runs and brought the tying run to the plate for Ottawa Hills, but Lake’s right fielder Korbin Adkins made a diving snag to end the inning.

“They saw a sliver of hope, and that diving catch by Korbin just erased that,” Witt said.

Ottawa Hills (18-10) put two more runners on in the seventh, but Blazevich induced a groundout to first and a fielder’s choice tag by Wagner, who fielded a ball at third and ran down the runner at second in a pickle for the final out.

“My teammates were really encouraging,” Blazevich said of settling down after his rough entrance on the mound. “I just felt confident.”

Wagner, who allowed just five hits after the four-run first in his 11th start of the season, struck out six batters over 5.2 innings and improved to 8-3 on the season.

“I found the groove,” Wagner said. “The curveball started working. They were hitting it on the ground, the team was making plays and they were swinging and missing a lot.”

The top five batters in Lake’s lineup combined to hit 9-for-20 with six runs and four RBIs. Gavin Kohlhofer, Blazevich, Wagner and Sobczak each produced multi-hit performances, while Tobias drove in a pair.

Tajblik also extended his school-record, single-season stolen base total to 33. He broke Tim DeCant’s previous record of 31 from 2007 in Thursday’s district semifinal.

With the victory, Lake snapped a four-game losing streak in district championships while snagging the program’s 11th such title since 1955.

“This means everything,” Wagner said. “We didn’t know what we were going to expect coming into this year. We knew that we had to come out and find our groove, and we found it. Now we keep on going.”

Kohlhofer continued a family legacy of regional appearances with the win. His older brother, Ryan, helped lead the Flyers to the regional in 2012, while his father, Mike, who is an assistant coach on this year’s team, was a sophomore pitcher on Lake’s 1985 regional squad.

“I say it after every game,” Witt said. “I have really good coaches that I trust. They help me so much in the dugout, and they help us so much in game prep. Our kids respect them and listen to them and having them with me to enjoy this is awesome.”

With a win over Bucyrus Wynford on Thursday, Lake would advance to the regional final round for the first time since 2003.