FAIRBORN — Saturday the Northmont varsity baseball team returned to Fairborn to finish a game suspended after one inning due to weather that originally began on April 5.
The game went into an extra inning to determine the winner as Northmont pulled out an 8-7 victory to improve to 14-8 overall while Fairborn dropped to 17-7.
On April 5 Cole Stephens drew a leadoff walk and Caden Cronebach followed with another walk. Both runners scored on a one out double by Tyler Defibaugh.
Fairborn answered in the bottom of the 1st on a leadoff single by Jacob Webb and a double by Jon Fields. Both scored on a double by Ryan Profitt to tie the game 2-2.
Saturday the Thunderbolts took a 5-2 lead in the top of the 2nd inning. Dylan Guth drew a leadoff walk, Garrett McGough singled to left and Stephens reached on a wild throw to first by Fairborn shortstop Branden Lilley that also allowed Guth to score. Cronebach got an RBI on a sacrifice ground out to second that brought McGough home and starting pitcher Ryan Pullins followed with an RBI double to score Stephens.
The Skyhawks eventually tied the game 5-5 in the home half of the 5th inning. Jon Fields hit a single to center to lead-off the inning and Ryan Profitt drew a walk. Will Coleman loaded the bases with a bunt. With one out starting pitcher Andrew Trickett singled to right to score Fields and Mark Rich belted a two run single to right to tie the game.
Profitt took the mound in relief of Trickett in the top of the 6th inning. Stephens led off with an infield single and then stole second and third bases. Cronebach also reached on an infield single and Pullins drew a walk to load the bases. Profitt struck out Defibaugh and C.J. Van Schaik but issued a bases loaded walk to Nick Moomey to put the Thunderbolts up 6-5.
Fairborn tied it back up in the bottom of the 6th with Collin Hobert pitching in relief of Pullins. Jacob Webb drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a passed ball. Fields singled to left advancing Webb to third base. Will Coleman laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Webb to tie it 6-6.
The score remained deadlocked after 7 innings sending the game into extra innings. In the top of the 8th the Thunderbolts got a lead-off infield single by Thomas Walsh and Nick Moomey reached base on a bunt. Hobert laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners and Dylan Guth laid down another sacrifice bunt to score Walsh and advanced Moomey to third base. McGough followed with a single to center to score Moomey for an 8-6 lead.
The Skyhawks fought back with Webb leading off the bottom of the 8th with a single to right. He advanced to second on 1-3 ground out and then stole third base. Profitt launched a sacrifice fly to right to bring Webb home but Coleman grounded out to end the threat.
“We got down early but came back and scored some runs in the fifth to tie it up,” said Fairborn Coach Josh Patrick. “We competed well but we just didn’t do the small things to win today and when you face a team like Northmont you’ve got to do the small things to come out on top. We had a few opportunities with guys on third base where we didn’t hit very well in those situations and we made a couple of key errors on some routine ground balls that I though should have been very makeable plays. Errors are a part of the game, I get that. We didn’t field a couple of bunts either so it was just a lot of small things. When they are trying to give us outs we should be able to field it and get the out and we didn’t do that today.”
NMT 230 001 02 – 8 10 1
FBN 200 031 01 – 7 10 2
