By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
Edon 3, Ayersville 1
EDON (June 28, 2025) – Sometimes rather than the plays you make that wins a game, it’s the ones that aren’t made that lose it.
With Edon righty Christian Owens and Ayersville’s Chris Steingass locked in a pitcher’s duel, it was four Pilot mistakes in the fourth inning that sent across the go-ahead runs and gave the Bombers a 3-1 victory in the opening round of the ACME Sectional Tournament.
Neither pitcher allowed an earned run on the day. Ayersville scored off Owens in the first inning after a two-out miscue on a foul fly that allowed an at-bat to continue.
Dane Ewers singled with one out and stole second to start the Pilot rally. After Jackson Stambaugh’s foul pop down the left field line was dropped, the Pilot cleanup hitter lined a run scoring single to right-center to put Ayersville up.
Edon knotted the game in the second, with the help of a Pilot outfield gaff. Lane Brandt rifled a single to right, and when it was misplayed, Brandt finally made his way to second, after a back and forth excursion between the bases.
Wyatt Wheeler’s base hit marked Brandt to tie the game. Owens led off the go-ahead inning with a base hit, then got around to third thanks to a wild pitch and a passed ball.
Briggs Gallahue walked and stole second to put Bombers on second and third. Brandt’s pop up was muffed on the infield scoring Owens and Gallahue went to third on an ensuing throwing error to the plate.
Jackson Clinger bounced to short, but Gallahue baited the first baseman on the play and scored ahead of the throw home to make it 3-1.
Owens scattered six hits, walked two and struck out 12 Pilots on the day to pick up the complete game win. Steingass allowed eight hits, two of which were from Owens, also walked two and struck out 11.
EDON 010 200 0 – 3 7 2
A’VILLE 100 000 0 – 1 6 3
Records: Edon 2-3
WINNING PITCHER: Owens (7 innings, 6 hits, 1 run, 1 earned, 2 walks, 12 strikeouts)
LOSING PITCHER: Steingass (7 innings, 7 hits, 3 runs, 1 earned, 2 walks, 11 strikeouts)
LEADING HITTERS: (Edon) Brandt – double; Owens – 2 singles; Wheeler – single, 2 RBIs; (Ayersville) Stambaugh – double, single, RBI
Edgerton 3, Hilltop 2
EDON (June 28, 2025) – What did Hall of Famer Yogi Berra say? “It ain’t over til it’s over”?
Just when Hilltop and Brennan Dempsey were breezing through the Edgerton lineup and holding a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Bulldogs found a way.
The bottom of the order sliced the afore mentioned deficit in half, then leadoff batter Maddox Baker drilled a two-run game winning double in a 3-2 comeback victory in the opening round of the ACME Tournament at Edon.
Dempsey and Edgerton’s Parker Elden were matching zeroes on the scoreboard until the fourth. That’s when the Cadets played ABC baseball to score a run without a hit.
Micah Rossman walked and stole second to lead off the inning. Toby Hartman’s grounder moved him to third and when Ezra Mahlman lined out to center, Rossman came home for the first run of the game.
The Cadets added another in the sixth. Brady Wagner singled and stole second, then rode home on Cameron Shimp’s ground-rule double for a 2-0 lead.
In the meantime, Dempsey was throwing goose-eggs at the Bulldogs in the midst of working on a three-hitter.
However, when an error, Kellen Sanchez’s bunt single and a walk loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth, Shimp came to the mound to put out the fire.
The lanky right-hander did just that with a strikeout, then a double-play grounder to extinguish the threat.
However, in the seventh, Shimp hit Brady Everetts to start the inning and gave up consecutive singles to left center by Bryce Schroeder and Mason Elden to score the first Bulldog run.
Shimp got Parker Elden on strikes, but Baker came through as he rammed a pitch into the left center field gap to chase two runs home for the game winner.
Baker, who relieved Parker Elden in the sixth, also got the win on the mound. Elden gave up only five hits and two earned runs.
Dempsey did not allow a run and walked just three hits in his five plus innings of work.
HILL 000 101 0 – 2 5 2
EDG 000 000 3 – 3 6 0
Records: Hilltop 3-5, Edgerton 6-6
WINNING PITCHER: Ma. Baker (2 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts) P. Elden
LOSING PITCHER: Shimp (1.1 innings, 3 hits, 3 runs, 3 earned, 0 walks, 2 strikeouts) Other: Dempsey
LEADING HITTERS: (Hilltop) Shimp – double, RBI; Wagner – 2 singles; (Edgerton) Ma. Baker – double, 2 RBIs; Schroeder – 2 singles
Montpelier 15, Edon 5 (5 innings)
EDON (June 28, 2025) – Montpelier blew open a tight game with a nine-run third inning and went on to a five-inning 15-5 ACME Tournament win over Edon in the second round of the sectional tourney at Edon.
CJ Fidler’s single, a dropped fly ball, the first of six Edon errors, and Hayden Sharps’ run scoring hit paced the Locos to a 2-0 first inning lead.
Loco starter Jaxon Stahler walked the first three hitters of the second but escaped unscathed with two strikeouts and a fly ball to keep it 2-0, but the Bombers cut the deficit in half in the third.
Lane Brandt followed a Korbin Olds single with a run producing double to right that got Edon on the board.
However, in the bottom of the inning, the Locos loaded up, some against Brandt and some because of four Bomber errors. A walk, an error, and a second RBI single from Sharps got the inning going.
Then back-to-back doubles from Stahler and Malachi Smeltzer tacked on two more runs. Zaine Stull and Fidler each lined run scoring singles to make it 8-1 before two more errors, Kenneth Smeltzer’s RBI hit and Sharps’ sacrifice fly made it 11-1.
Fidler’s third hit scored a run in the fourth and Wesley Hartsock’s fly ball added a second to push the bulge to 13-1.
Edon rallied in the fifth as Stahler went past the 100 pitch mark. An error, three straight singles from Korbin Olds, Kendol Brigle and Briggs Gallehue, then a bases loaded hit batter and still bases loaded walk, pushed across four Bomber runs to get Edon under the 10-run rule at 13-5.
However, Montpelier needed four hitters to get the needed two runs to end the contest. Sharps’ triple and a Stahler single got one across, then after Malachi Smeltzer’s hit, Stull ended the game with a base hit to right. Stahler got the win, giving up six hits and walking five.
EDON 001 04 – 5 6 6
MONT 209 22 – 15 15 1
Records: Edon 2-4, Montpelier 6-1
WINNING PITCHER: Stahler (5 innings) 6 hits, 5 runs, 4 earned, 5 walks, 7 strikeouts)
LOSING PITCHER: Brandt (3 innings, 9 hits, 11 runs, 7 earned, 2 walks, 1 strikeout) Other: Gallehue, Chrisman
LEADING HITTERS: (Edon) Brandt – double, 2 RBIs; Olds – 2 singles, RBI, 2 runs; Brigle – 2 singles; (Montpelier) Sharps – triple, 2 singles, 3 RBIs, 2 runs; Stahler – double, single, 2 RBIs, 2 runs; M. Smeltzer – double, single, RBI; Fidler – 3 singles, 2 RBIs, 2 runs; Hartsock – single, 2 RBIs; Stull – 2 singles, 2 RBIs, 2 runs