DIGGING IT OUT … Archbold’s Harrison Wyse makes a sliding stop on a ground ball.
PHOTOS BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
QUICK THROW … Swanton pitcher Carsen Lemons comes off the mound to make a throw to first. VIEW 198 PHOTOS OF THIS CONTEST FOR FREE AT WWW.THEVILLAGEREPORTER.COM
By: Mario Gomez
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
DEFIANCE (May 28, 2026) — The last time the Blue Streaks and the Bulldogs met was on Swanton’s home field and the ’dogs had just finished off a 10-0 dismantling of Archbold in a five-inning affair in a Northwest Ohio Athletic League contest.
It was only obvious that the Bluestreaks had a score to settle and were looking to continue on the tournament trail.
The first-seeded Streaks had a first-round bye to prepare for Swanton while the Bulldogs had to battle past Delta to reach the next round.
When the pair finally took the field in a Division V, Region 18 district semifinal, it seemed like a continuation of the first game.
Swanton (17-10) used good defense, timely hitting and took advantage of some costly Archbold errors to earn a 7-1 victory to move on to the district finals. Archbold bows out at 22-6 on the season.
“We keep preaching good pitching, great defense and timely hitting and we got all three today,” said Swanton head coach Josh Siewert. “When we score first we like where we’re at. It panned out in our way again.”
Swanton pulled the early momentum, scoring two runs in the top of the first inning after a pair of Blue Streak errors.
Luke Marlow reached on a fly ball error by the right fielder, CJ Arroyo-Thompson followed by a bunt that was mishandled by Archbold pitcher Ethan Bowman that put Brady O’Shea at first and allowed Marlow to reach third.
O’Shea stole second base and Carsen Lemons was walked to load the bases still with no one out. Carson Bond singled on the left side of the infield to score Marlow and O’Shea to take a 2-0 lead.
Bowman settled down and got the next three Bulldogs out, getting two strikeouts and a popout to end the inning.
Lemons was on the mound for Swanton and had some control problems early on. Tripp Langenderfer worked a leadoff walk to start the game but Bond got Isaiahs Gracia out on strikes.
Colin Short was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second.
After that, Lemons found his spots, striking out CJ Arroyo-Thompson and getting Jace Bernath to fly out to center to get the Bulldogs out of the inning unscathed.
“He was nervous,” said Siewert of Lemons. “He had never thrown in a game this big. After he got out of the first inning I told him all the nerves are done now let’s just go the rest of the way.”
Swanton increased their lead in the third inning after Lemons started the inning off with a single. Bond hit a deep shot to the shortstop Harrison Wyse who got a throw off to first but was offline to put runners on first and second.
Owen Hurst hit into a fielder’s choice to get Bond out at second but Lemons went to third while Hurst was at first.
Brendan Upham hit a grounder to second baseman Joe Williams who got the second out at second that scored Bond to take a 3-0 lead.
A groundout for the third out got the Streaks out of the inning. After Archbold went down in order in the bottom of the inning, Swanton went back to work in the fourth inning to give the Bulldogs some breathing room.
After a lineout for the first out of the inning, Evan Reinhard singled to center. Marlow flew out to right field for the second out.
O’Shea came up big with a long fly ball that the center fielder, Colin Short, could not get to.
Reinhard sprinted to third but when Short mishandled the ball, Reinhard put it into another gear and scored Swanton’s fourth run of the game.
O’Shea moved to second on the error. With first base open, the Streaks intentionally walked Lemons.
Bowman unleashed a wild pitch to Bond that allowed O’Shea and Lemons to move up a base. Bond ended up walking to load the bases for Hurst.
A single by Hurst to the left field gap scored two more runs to open up the game 6-0.
Upham popped out for the final out but the Streaks found themselves in a deeper hole after four innings. Try as they did, the Streaks could not figure out Lemons.
Over the next three innings Lemons limited the Streaks to just one hit until the seventh inning.
In the top of the seventh, the Bulldogs put up one more insurance run and did it with two outs in the inning. Wyatt Cline was pitching in relief and got a strikeout and a groundout.
Reinhard came to the plate and ripped a double to right-center. A fielding error by Arroyo-Thompson allowed Reinhard to get to third.
The next hitter, Marlow, was hit by the pitch to get to first base. On the next play, Swanton pulled off a successful double steal, with Marlow attempting to get to second and getting caught in a rundown.
Reinhard found the right time to leave and sprinted home before the tag to score for a 7-0 lead. “Sometimes you’ve got to take gambles,” said Siewert. Sometimes they work out and sometimes they don’t.”
Wyse led off Archbold’s last-chance inning with a single to center. Cline hit a ground ball to third to move Wyse to second.
A wild pitch moved Wyse to third where he came home on a deep ground ball out by Williams to score the only run of the game for Archbold.
Max Burrows hit a high fly ball to first base that Upham secured to end the game.
“We punched them in the mouth the first time,” said Siewert. We didn’t doubt if they came back after us. We hadn’t beaten them in eleven years but we weren’t afraid to play them.”
SHS 201 300 1 – 7 8 0
AHS 000 000 1 – 1 3 4
WP- Carsen Lemons (IP-7, R-1, H-3, K-5, BB-2)
LP- Ethan Bowman (IP-4.2, R-6, H-7, K-4, BB-5)
LEADING HITTERS: (Swanton) Carson Bond – 2 singles, 2 RBIs; Luke Marlow – double; Owen Hurst – single, 2 RBIs; Brady O’Shea – double, RBI; Evan Reinhard – single, double; (Archbold) Tripp Langenderfer – double.
