Massillon, Ohio-Wednesday evening the Jackson Polar Bears hosted the University School Preppers.
Landon Thiel got the start on the bump for the Polar Bears and worked a quick 1-2-3 inning with a pair of strikeouts. Hogan Sedlock opened the bottom of the 1st inning with a fly-ball to center that went over the head of Pattison, giving him a leadoff double. Carter Mottice would quickly bring him around to score with a line drive single. Garrett Wright would single allowing Mottice to make it all the way to 3rd. Eric Freetage grounded out to first advancing both runners advance a base. Kyle Benson added on with an RBI-single, which was followed up by a nice bunt by Griffin Cochran, forcing an error allowing him to reach 2nd. A pair of runners crossed home to double their lead. Evan Shapiro was able to earn a strikeout, but Jake Sweetnich and Kyle Andrews both draw walks. Sedlock would bat again and single to right, plating 2 more runs. Mottice followed that up by reaching on an error, giving scoring Andrews. Later on that inning, Wright drove in another set of runners giving the Polar Bears a dominating 9-0 lead in the first. Shapiro was finally able to end the inning with his 2nd strikeout, but with the damage done as Jackson held the 9-0 lead.
Pattison reached on an error, but a pop out followed by a strike´em out-throw´em out double play ends the top half of inning number 2. The Polar Bears would go down just as quickly, Shapiro struck out Cochran to start, and a pop-out quickly retired the first two hitters. Sweetnich singled, but a nice play by Tucker Greer at 1st base ended the inning.
The southpaw Thiel continued to shine, forcing a ground out and ending the frame with back-to-back K´s. Evan Shapiro started of the bottom of the 3rd with 2 quick strikeouts before hitting Wright with a pitch. Freetage reached on another error, and with Wright at 3rd Freetage tries to steal but a bad throw lets Wright score making it 10-0. Benson would ground out to Moss, ending the inning. Benson would be Shapiro´s final batter of the night. 10-0 Jackson after three.
Elliott flied to center, and with one out Penn gets the Preppers their first hit of the game. Deacon Nelson flied out to center. With two outs Penn stole second and third. Pattison drew a walk, but it would end up being all for naught as Aaron Moss would fly-out retiring the side. Tommy Blossom would come in for relief, earning two strikeouts, but allowed a walk in between. Kyle Andrews ends the inning by grounding out to Greer.
Heading into the top of the 5th, Thiel and the Polar Bears held a convincing 10-0 lead over the Preppers. The defense behind him would come up huge, catching a fly ball from Greer, and throwing out Zigman on a grounder to the third baseman Sweetnich. Thiel would strike out his last batter to end the game, capping off a stellar home victory.
Landon Thiel earned the win. He was able to go the distance, albeit only 5 innings. Thiel struck out six, while only walking one batter and giving up one hit on the night.
Hoban Sedlock went 2-3 with 2 RBIs, and Garrett Wright was 2-2 with a pair of RBIs. Carter Mottice and Kyle Benson both drove in a run.
The lone baserunners for the Preppers were Riley Penn, who went 1-2 with a single, followed by Ryan Pattison who drew a walk.