Archbold and Fairview played twice during the regular season, with Fairview winning both meetings, 5-1 and 9-1. The saying in sports is that it’s difficult to beat the same team three times in a season. That was true again has Archbold raced out to an early 8-0 lead on their way to a 10-2 win in the Division III baseball District Final at Defiance on Sunday afternoon. The game was originally scheduled for Saturday but had to be pushed back due to weather. After Archbold was retired in the top of the 1st by Fairview starting pitcher Hunter Bostater, the Apaches had a scoring chance in their first at bat. They would advance a runner to third base but leave him there and the game remained scoreless after the 1st. The 2nd inning was the break out inning for the Archbold bats. The Streaks batted all the way through their lineup, scoring five runs on four hits to take a 5-0 lead and forcing the Apaches to go to the bullpen early. New pitcher Jackson Hart surrendered one run before getting the final out and it was now 6-0 Archbold going to the bottom of the 2nd. Fairview threatened in the 3rd picking up a pair of two out walks by Archbold pitcher Bryson Taylor but couldn’t take advantage as they stranded both runners and the score stayed at 6-0 Archbold moving to the 4th. It was a scoreless 4th inning for both teams but the story that was developing was Archbold pitcher Bryson Taylor with a no hitter going after four innings. After Archbold added a run in the top of the 5th inning to make it 7-0, the Apaches would have their best chance of the night to get back in the game in the bottom of the inning. The Apaches were able to get their first hit of the game and eventually loaded the bases, but Taylor had the answer on the mound and the Apaches were stopped again, keeping the score at 7-0 in favor of the Blue Streaks. Bryce Williams drove in a run with an infield single in the top of the 6th to extend the Archbold lead to 8-0. Fairview (21-6) was able to carry the offensive momentum they gained during the 5th into their half of the 6th by scoring two runs to cut the Blue Streaks lead to 8-2. Archbold would cap off the game with two more runs in the 7th to make it a 10-2 ball game and send them to next week’s regionals. Archbold, now 21-6 on the season, now will play either Lake or Eastwood in the Regional Semifinals on Thursday, May 25th at 5pm at Elida Middle School.
