CEDARVILLE — The Cedarville Indians baseball team defeated Ohio Heritage Conference South division foe Greeneview Rams with a walk-off run to win by a score of 4-3.
In the bottom of the seventh, Cedarville’s CJ Pahl walked confidently to the plate. As the pitch came down, he blasted it deep towards left field. It could have been a walk-off home run, but it fell about a foot short and hit the fence forcing Pahl to settle for the triple.
“I thought I had it big time,” Pahl said. “I even bat flipped, ‘cause I thought it was out.”
Two batters later, Tommy Lowe sent him home with a base hit to end the game.
“Everybody felt we were going to win the game at that point,” Indians coach Andy Pauling said. “We felt pretty confident.”
The team played well defensively too as they forced the Rams to leave 10 men stranded on base. They got themselves out of dangerous territory multiple times, including a couple of bases loaded situations.
“We got into those jams by not throwing strikes, and we got out of them by getting back to those strikes,” Pauling said. “Good things happen when you throw strikes.”
Greeneview coach Dale Vinson said he was fine with the defense, but he was not happy with his team’s batting. He said the team will work on that in the three days before their next game.
“We have a lot of practice coming to focus on our hits and cut down on our strikeouts,” Vinson said. “We need to pull together as a team and not tear each other apart.”
The teams split the season series following the Indians’ win. Greeneview defeated Cedarville 9-8 back in March when the teams first met in Jamestown.
“We just played better and made the plays we had to at the end.” Pauling said.
The Indians are now 10-8 overall and two games out of first place in the OHC South at 6-5. Cedarville’s next game is scheduled for a 5 p.m. start on Thursday, April 25 at Grady’s Field at Xenia’s Athletes In Action athletic complex against host Legacy Christian.
Greeneview (5-10, 4-7 and third in the OHC South) will next play at 11 a.m. on the road Saturday, April 27 against Pitsburg Franklin Monroe.