FINDLAY — Perrysburg baseball has been a perennial district tournament participant, but this year there will be no regional tournament for the Yellow Jackets.
Sylvania Northview (22-8) advanced to the regionals after a 3-2 victory over Perrysburg Friday in the Division I district finals at Liberty-Benton.
It is Northview’s first regional appearance in school history after falling short at the district tournament on multiple occasions.
“Honestly, over the last couple years I feel like we started getting past just trying to get here, versus we expect to be here now,” Northview coach Greg Szparka said. “We’ve been here a few times the last few years and I feel like we had all the confidence in the world.”
Northview junior Alex Dupree belted a double to the right-center field fence, scoring senior Blake Bradford in the top of the seventh for the winning run. Bradford had reached on a throwing error.
It was fitting for Bradford to cross the plate for the game-winner because he was stellar on the mound, striking out nine, walking two, allowing five hits and one earned run.
“Blake throws well, and we knew coming in this was not going to be easy,” Perrysburg coach Dave Hall said.
Perrysburg senior pitcher Ben Robeson was on his game, too, striking out six, walking none and giving up three hits in seven innings. Both Robeson and Bradford were mixing in sliders to keep hitters off base.
None of the runs scored on Robeson were earned. In the first, a throwing error started a Northview rally that led to two runs.
Perrysburg loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the fourth, leading to two runs that tied the game.
Junior T.J. Takats led off with a walk, junior Connor Walendzak hit a base hit to left field, and senior Ryan Thompson laid down a perfect bunt along the left field line, loading the bases for junior Matt Gast.
Gast hit a grounder to senior shortstop Brodey Acres, whose throw to third was wide, allowing Takats to score. Walendzak scored the tying run on a wild pitch.
Walendzak finished the game 2-for-3 with a double and Perrysburg senior Max Heltzel was 2-for-2.
For the Wildcats, Acres hit a triple in the first, scoring a run, and Benny Seals had a base hit to left in the third.
Perrysburg, the Northern Lakes League champions, bows out at 23-6. They had defeated the Wildcats, which finished one game back as NLL runners-up, twice in league play.
“Both games we played before they were good ballgames. I have a lot of respect for that team. It’s cliché, but it’s tough to beat somebody three times, but you know it is,” Hall said.
For Hall and the Yellow Jackets, it was a disappointing end for a team that had its sights set on the regional tournament.
“We’re proud of them. They had a great year,” Hall said. “We got to this game last year and we got to it this year and we played well.
“We just had the mistakes in the first and seventh inning in throwing the ball to first base and didn’t get a couple hits.
“I think a couple calls might have gone wrong. That would have changed things, but still, you must make plays and get hits when it counts, and we didn’t. But I told them I was proud of them.”
Perrysburg’s district tournament legacy remains intact, and so does the legacy of eight Perrysburg seniors.
“We won 48 games in two years,” Hall said. “Anytime you get to the districts — I mean, we’ve been here 10 out of the last 11 and to district finals six years in a row.
“You can’t fault our kids. Our kids know what to do and we have my expectations, and they meet them,” Hall added.
In a 5 p.m. regional semifinal Thursday at Bowling Green State University’s Warren Steller Field, Northview will take on Anthony Wayne, which defeated Findlay 8-2 at Carter Park for a district title.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s a tribute to these guys,” Szparka said. “They worked their tails off.”
