Washington senior Titus Lotz was the winning pitcher in the D-II Southeast District Semifinal game on Monday, May 22, 2023. He pitched eight innings, allowing no runs on three hits with three walks and 14 strikeouts.
Photos by Mary Kay West
Photos by Mary Kay West
The Blue Lions embrace Bryce Yeazel following his walk off sacrifice squeeze bunt in the D-II Southeast District Semifinal game on Monday, May 22, 2023. The Blue Lions defeated Jackson 1-0 in eight innings and advance to play in the District Championship on Wednesday, May 24.
Photos by Mary Kay West
ATHENS — Survive and advance. That’s the name of the game when it comes to the postseason in athletics. The Washington Blue Lion baseball team took on the Jackson Ironmen in a thrilling extra inning affair on Monday, May 22 at Ohio University. The game remained scoreless through seven innings before Washington’s Bryce Yeazel perfectly executed a squeeze bunt with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Blue Lions a 1-0 victory.
Senior Titus Lotz started on the mound and pitched a gem of a game for the Blue Lions. He pitched eight innings, allowing three hits while walking three batters and striking out 14.
Jackson started Ramey Wyant on the mound. He worked three and two-thirds innings, allowing no runs on three hits with one walk and five strikeouts.
Gaven Jones pitched the next two innings for the Ironmen, allowing no hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
Tucker Williams pitched the final one and two-thirds innings, suffering the loss. He allowed one run on three hits with three walks and no strikeouts.
The Blue Lions threatened to score in the opening inning following singles from Lotz and Jonah Waters, but were unable to get on the board.
The Ironmen had an opportunity to score in the top of the second inning with runners on the corners and two away, but Lotz struck out the next batter to end the inning.
Fast forward to the top of the seventh inning, Jackson had a runner on third with two outs. Lotz was able to force a ground ball to third baseman Sam Lotz who got the runner out at first on a close play to get out of the jam.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Bryce Yeazel led off with a single to left field. Gavin Coffman laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Yeazel to second with one out. Coffman would get no closer than second base as the Ironmen were able to get out of the inning with no runs allowed.
Jackson had runners on second and third with two outs in the top of the eighth inning, but Lotz struck out the next batter to send it to the bottom of the eighth.
Lotz proceeded to lead off the inning by hitting a rocket to the shortstop that he was unable to handle, leading to a single. A.J. Dallmayer was next and drew a walk. Waters then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners to second and third with one out. Tanner Lemaster was then intentionally walked to load the bases. Yeazel came to bat next and laid down a bunt to score Lotz and walk it off for the Blue Lions.
Offensively for Washington, Yeazel was 2 for 3 with the game-winning RBI and a walk.
Lotz was 2 for 4 with a run scored.
Waters was 1 for 2 with a walk.
Wall was 1 for 4.
Boston Campbell, Ryan Seimetz, and Landon Camp each had hits for Jackson. The Ironmen end their season with a record of 20-6.
Washington (24-1, No. 5 in the final OHSBCA Coaches Poll) plays again on Wednesday, May 24 at 6 p.m. at Ohio University against Circleville. The Tigers were down 5-4 in the top of the seventh inning on Monday and rallied for three runs to defeat the Shermans by a score of 7-5.
