EXTRA BASES … Luke Marlow rips a double in the first inning for the Bulldogs.
PHOTOS BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
FROM THE DIRT … Swanton’s Brendan Upham throws from his knees after making a diving stop. VIEW 116 PHOTOS OF THIS CONTEST FOR FREE AT WWW.THEVILLAGEREPORTER.COM
By: Mario Gomez
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
DEFIANCE (May 30, 2026) — The win usually goes to the team who makes the least errors in a contest and today, that team was the Liberty Benton Eagles who took advantage of some costly errors to defeat Swanton 5-1 to capture the Division V district title and move on to the regional semifinals.
The Bulldogs were guilty of three errors, two in the first two innings that led to five unearned runs. “We generally don’t kick the ball around too much,” said Swanton head coach Josh Siewert.
“I’ve said timely hitting, pitching and good defense wins games but our defense wasn’t one hundred percent there. Pitching wise it felt like we got behind hitters.”
The Eagles took advantage of a Swanton error after Connor Barbara hit a shallow fly ball to center that Evan Reinhard saw all the way into his glove but popped out of his mitt.
Barbara got to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Reid Irwin and moved to third after a wild pitch by pitcher Carson Bond.
Zach Elchert singled to right field to score Barbara to give the Eagles an early 1-0 lead.
Elchert reached second on a passed ball and stole third base to give L-B another scoring chance after Kooper Leatherman walked but both runners were stranded after Bond struck out the next two Eagles batters to get out of the inning with minimal damage.
Swanton did some damage in their half of the first. Luke Marlow started the inning off with a double to left field and moved to third on a Brady O’Shea sacrifice bunt.
Carsen Lemons drilled a double to right field to score Marlow and put himself in scoring position.
Jackson Knepper, L-B pitcher, got Bond to strike out and got Owen Hurst to ground out for the final out but the score was tied at 1.
L-B came back in the second to record four runs to take a 5-1 lead. Corbin Schworm singled to start the second inning and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Knepper.
Grady Latta walked to put runners on first and second.
Bond struck out Barbara and got Reid Irwin to ground out but the throw by Hurst was late and wide to first allowing Schworm to score to help the Eagles retake the lead 2-1.
Latta moved to third on the play and Irwin moved to second on a steal. Elchert was intentionally walked to load the bases for Leatherman.
The sophomore catcher smoked a line shot over the head of the right fielder for a double that cleared the bases to give the Eagles a 5-1 lead.
Swanton loaded the bases in the bottom of the second after a Drew Koder single, a walk to Reinhard and an intentional pass to Marlow all with two outs.
Knepper got O’Shea to ground out to the shortstop to leave the bases loaded.
Bond did a good job on the mound from the third inning on but on the other side of the diamond, Knepper was equally effective retiring the next seven Bulldog batters until a base hit by Reinhard in the top of the fifth inning.
Knepper gave up an intentional walk in that inning to Lemons before getting out of the inning with no damage done.
Both teams went down in order in the sixth inning as the game went to the top of the seventh with the Eagles holding the four-run lead.
Irwin and Elchert opened the inning with singles to put runners on first and second.
Leatherman popped out into foul territory for the first out and then pinch hitter Grayson Wages laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Irwin and Elchert to second and third with two outs.
Bond threw three straight strikes to get Taden Troyer for the third out to end the threat.
It was do-or-die time for the Bulldogs. Koder came up and slapped a single to right to get the leadoff man on base.
He was erased when Reinhard hit into a fielder’s choice to get the lead runner out at second. Marlow hit a long fly ball to left where Irwin secured the second out leaving Reinhard at first.
O’Shea made the last out of the Swanton season after flying out to the right fielder Latta for the third out, giving L-B the 5-1 win and the district title.
“It was a successful season,” said Siewert. “We lost a lot of one run games. We were in every game and that’s a positive thing.
“They had higher goals than I would say. My goal was to make it here. I felt we had a really good chance.”
LBHS 140 000 0 – 5 5 0
SHS 100 000 0 – 1 5 3
WP- Jackson Knepper (IP-7, R-1, H-5, K-4, BB-3)
LP- Carson Bond (IP-7, R-5, H-5, K-5, BB-3)
LEADING HITTERS: (Liberty Benton) Zach Elchert — 2 singles, RBI; Kooper Leatherman — double, 3 RBIs; (Swanton) Carsen Lemons — double, RBI; Drew Koder — 2 singles; Luke Marlow — double.