Little things lead Granville baseball to huge district win against Bloom-Carroll

GRANVILLE — Every play was magnified Monday in a Division II district semifinal showdown between top-seeded Granville and third seed Bloom-Carroll.

An attempted sacrifice bunt for the visiting Bulldogs turned into an unlikely double play, and tremendous momentum changer for the Blue Aces, wiping out a sixth-inning rally and preserving a 1-0 victory.

Andrew Nemec fired a 3-hitter for Granville (19-6) and Logan Moore allowed only two hits for Bloom-Carroll (16-12) in a magnificent pitching duel. But it was center fielder Aidan Lackey making the biggest play for the Blue Aces, helping to send them to the district finals at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Lancaster's Beavers Field against 7th seed Bishop Hartley (16-8), which knocked off fourth-seeded Jonathan Alder 2-1.

Down 1-0 in the sixth, the defending state runnerup Bulldogs looked to be in business, as Ayden Anderson and Tyler Parks began the inning with back-to-back singles. But Evan Dozer popped up his bunt behind the plate. Catcher Conner Buerkel caught it and zipped a throw to second. The ball glanced off shortstop Nolan Tracy's glove, but Lackey alertly backed up the play and threw to third, nabbing the speedy Anderson for a double play. Nemec then retired the final four batters of the game.

"I knew the baserunner was a fast kid, and aggressive," Lackey said. "The ball was popped up and I knew he had a good lead, so I tried to back pick him at second. It was just a little overthrown. A lot of baseball work went into that play."

Bloom-Carroll coach Jason Vest disagreed with the call at third and asked the umpires for a second opinion. But he was also quick to praise Lackey.

"You don't know what happens if the center fielder doesn't hustle out there at second base," Vest said. "Then, he made a good throw. He was the difference in the game. He also ran down a couple of balls out there. Last year, we got those bunts down. That's baseball."

Granville got its only two hits and scored the only run of the game in the third inning off Moore, the quintessential crafty lefty who struck out only one and pitched to contact in front of his stellar defense. Tracy led off with a single to right, was sacrificed to second by Dylan Kale and tagged up to third on Dylan Andrews'  fly ball to right-center. Sawyer Benschoter then grounded a two-out RBI single up the middle.

"Just score the run," Benschoter said. "Hit the ball up the middle and hit a fastball. He's a great pitcher, and he was changing speeds and spotting his pitches."

"We try to use a team-first approach at the plate, and get quality at bats," coach Brock Bolden said. "That was also heads up base running by Tracy, getting to third on that fly ball. We use different approaches at the plate in practice, during our time indoors back in November and in our facility during all of those rainouts we had. We try to take what we work on into the games."

In Granville's only other threat, Moore picked a runner off second in the fifth inning. He walked just one. But on this day, one run was enough.

Nemec struck out five and walked two, stranding runners in scoring position in the first, second and fourth innings. Beau Wisecarver reached on an error leading off the game and was sacrificed to second, but Parks bounced to second and Dozer popped to first. The Blue Aces played flawless defense the rest of the day.

"Nemec absolutely shoved," Lackey said. "Sometimes, he tries to strike everyone out, but he knew he had good defense behind him."

"I didn't come in thinking I was throwing a shutout," said Nemec. "They hit some balls hard, but right at us. I knew I had to throw strikes and get my fielders involved, especially number 6 in center field. He gets anything close to him. That throw (on the double play) was a bullet."

The Bulldogs barrelled up some shots to the outfield, only to see them flagged down. Nemec recorded nine fly ball outs. five of them to Lackey. "He's a gazelle out there," Benschoter said.

"We tend to hit the ball in the air quite a bit," Vest said. "The wind blowing in might have stopped like three balls from going out, but they had one which could have gotten out, too. It was a good game, a fun game."

Bolden said the Licking County League challenged his team on a weekly basis.

"We've gone back and forth in league games all year. Three nights a week, you have to play your best," he said. "A lot of those moments, helped prepare us for tonight."

"We have very good confidence after this game," Benschoter said. "I think we're going to have a really good run."

dweidig@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Granville baseball gets OHSAA district win against Bloom-Carroll