Post 83 goes cold in state loss to Beverly Lowell

LANCASTER — For as many timely hits as Sandusky Post 83 had in its three district tournament wins, one would have thought the barrage would continue.Unfortunately, even getting more than one hit in an inning did not happen on Wednesday.Beverly Lowell Post 389/750 got a strong start from Tyler Bradford and topped Sandusky 3-0 in the opening round of the state legion tournament at Lancaster's Beavers Field.With the loss, Post 83 drops to 17-12-1 and will open loser's bracket play at 1 p.m. Thursday"We wanted to work his pitch count," Post 83 coach Jason Samstag said. "He had a couple of quick innings and I told the kids not to go up swinging at the first pitch. We had to get his pitch count up. They had a good defense, too."Bradford overcame a 28-pitch first inning to allow just three singles while striking out 10. He reached the 105-pitch limit with two outs in the seventh inning."We have not thrown him as many innings this year," Lowell coach Doug Wainwright said. "When you come over to the big stage, he wanted the baseball. The bigger the spotlight for him, the better he performs."Post 83 found opportunities against the lanky southpaw Bradford few and far between. Mikey Haynes (Clyde) singled with two outs in the first inning before Cayden Rollins (Clyde) walked. However, Bradford bounced back to strike out Ryan Lozier (Clyde) for his third strikeout of the inning.Garrett Vickery (Bellevue) walked to lead off the third inning, but Sandusky could not get anything going. James Fisher (Ohio Northern/Margaretta) singled with two outs in the fourth inning. Bryson Harvey (Norwalk) then walked, but Bradford induced a fly out from James McClung (St. Mary Central Catholic) to escape the jam."We got the timely hit in districts," Samstag said. "That is baseball though. You can have nine or 10 hits and not score. You have to get the hits when they count."Meanwhile, Lowell (34-8) got to Fisher in the second inning. Clayton Cook singled to lead off the inning before moving to second on a bunt from Konnor Roberts. Tanner Neal then reached on a bunt single, moving Cook to third. Sandusky looked to have been gifted an out as Cook wandered a bit too far off third on a bunt attempt, but eventually got back to third safely when nobody from Post 83 covered the bag.Fisher induced a lineout to get the second out, but a wild pitch brought Cook in. Luke Nelson then ripped a run-scoring single for a 2-0 lead.Robbie Webb (Clyde) singled in the fifth and Lozier reached on an error in the sixth, but Post 83 again could not string two hits together. Webb also reached on an error in the seventh when Roberts came on to replace Bradford, but Everett Samstag (SMCC) grounded out weakly to end the game."We have to do a better job of putting the ball in play," coach Samstag said. "We struck out too many times, but Bradford is a good pitcher. He hit his spots."Post 83 also dealt with a 12-day layoff since winning the district tournament at Tiffin University. Sandusky had won 14 of its last 16 games before Wednesday."We had a pick up game with the junior legion team and a couple of practices, but not games," Samstag said. "We were on a winning streak there and we were hot. The layoff hurt us in the long run, but there are no excuses. We have to play better."Fisher went the distance for Post 83, allowing three runs on six hits. He struck out three. Coach Samstag noted that Sandusky still has a plethora of arms if it wants to make a run out of the loser's bracket."James had a bullpen session Sunday and he was ready," he said. "You can not ask for much more out of him, but we have to help him behind him. We have four or five starters ready to go for this week. We will come back tomorrow at 1 and give it a shot."Sandusky 000 000 0 — 0 3 2Beverly Lowell 020 001 X — 3 6 2WP: Tyler Bradford. LP: James Fisher. 2B: (BL) Tate Engle.Post 83's James Fisher throws a pitch during the 5th district championship game in Tiffin on Thursday, July 12, 2018.