High school baseball: Black River drops rematch with Keystone, shares LCL with Columbia

PENFIELD TWP. — It wasn't supposed to end like this. On Wednesday, Black River claimed a share of the Lorain County League baseball title with a win over Keystone. The same teams met again Friday and the Pirates couldn't get a repeat effort. The Wildcats scored in the first inning and never looked back while posting a 9-1 win to hand Columbia a share of the conference championship. Both teams finished 12-2 in the league, while the Wildcats finished a game back. "It was just one of those days where you feel like everything wrong that could happen did," Black River coach Jake O'Connor said. "The ball just didn't roll our way too many times, and we didn't make the plays when we needed them to happen and Keystone did." The Wildcats got out quickly, scoring in the first when Tucker Webb had the first of his three hits, was sacrificed to second by Dominic Reitz and came home on a two-out hit by Victor Vilchez, who went 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs. "We've been playing well and lost a couple games by one that could have gone either way," Webb said. "That first run was really important. It got the momentum going right away. Just having that helped us flip the switch." "It was good to get that right away and I'm glad I was able to get it through the right side to get that first run home in the game," Vilchez said. "The last game really hurt and we came into this with nothing to lose. We were passionate about this even with nothing on the line for us." Black River (15-7) had chances to bounce back with runners in the second and third. Evan Ladina singled in the second and was stranded at second. In the third, Jayce Hopek and Blake Hopkins each reached on an error, but Hopek was thrown out at home on an attempted double-steal. "We've been a pretty good team all year about answering back when we get scored on, and today it just didn't happen," O'Connor said. "We just made too many base running mistakes and pop ups in the infield." Keystone (15-10) proceeded to score a pair of unearned runs in the third when Reitz and Brock Miller singled and came home on an error for a 3-0 lead. The Pirates finally got to Wildcats freshman starter Ryan Younglas with a run in the fourth. Travis Dean singled but was erased on a Ladina fielder's choice in a 6-5-4 rundown, but Chase English came through with a double to right for a run. A pair of groundouts on the left side left English stranded. Keystone answered with a run on a Webb sacrifice fly that sent home Drew Sivec, who had singled, and the game got completely away from the Pirates in the sixth off relief pitcher Johnny Kray, as Keystone scored five times (2 earned) while sending 11 batters to the plate. Contact James Brady at sports@medina-gazette.com. Keystone 9, Black River 1 BLACK RIVER&emsp;000 100 0 — 1 4 2 KEYSTONE&emsp;102 105 0 — 9 12 3 WP — Ryan Younglas 6 innings, earned run, 4 hits, 0 walks, hit batter, 2 strikeouts. LP — Cole Ladina (5-2) 6 innings, 4 runs, 2 earned, 8 hits, walk, hit batter, strikeout. Black River (15-7, 12-2) — Chase English double. Keystone (15-10, 11-3) — Tucker Webb 3 singles, RBI, run; Dominic Reitz 2 singles, 2 runs; Brock Miller 2 singles, RBI, 2 runs; Victor Vilchez 3 singles, 2 RBIs, run.